MY BIOGRAPHY. |
CHAPTER 49. Come In. |
1. 'Come in,' said the bright young lady at the reception desk to the County Court. 'I am the Clerk of the Court dealing with you. Judge So and So will be tied up for a few moments so follow me and we will have some coffee.' To this day I cannot remember the name of the Judge but I do remember the comfortable waiting area where we were served coffee and treat like highly respectable human beings. I also remember the Judges Chambers and the very large table where we were invited to sit on either side of this large chair, at its head. The lady explained that it was considered polite if we were to stand up when the Judge came in. We stood and this charming gentleman introduced himself and asked us to sit down. He was dressed in a lounge suit and his first statement was to enquire if we would like more coffee, then to ask my wife to stop weeping as from this point things could only get better. 2. He excused himself while he read his file and sent the girl to attend to something else. 3. When he finished reading he pushed the file to the side before saying that he was amazed and very disappointed that we were before him as this sort of thing should never happen to decent, honest and hard working people and having given it very careful thought he felt that in the best interests of everyone and in particular ourselves, our age and track record, that he should wipe out all debts, a large proportion of which he felt were not of our making or were the result of circumstances that had developed through irresponsibility or the neglect of others and not through lack of effort on our part and the most effective way to do that was to declare us BANKRUPT. He looked at his watch and wrting down the time on some form or other, then stated that as from 10-30 am that morning, you sir and you madam, are bankrupt and you will both realise, perhaps not immediately, that that is the best thing I can do for you as the amount of debt in question and the opportunity for you to pay it off, at your time of life, is just not a reasonable proposition. He went on to say that he felt the Bank should have listened and been more reasonable and that the Brewery, particularly over their repair and refurbishment schedule and the rediculous amounts of money involved in leases and short term tenancies could have been more co-operative. I wonder if he saw the hidden agenda that we became suspicious of much later on, and that was that they simply wanted us out of the pub and morals and anything else didn't come into it? However, he went on to say, the law states that every effort will be made to recover as much as possible from what remained of our assets to offset our debts. The girl came in, he handed her the folder, said she would look after us, excused himself and wished us all the best. |
MY BIOGRAPHY. |
