With Ken Bolton refusing to remove a mortgage blocking transfer to his sibling of their late father’s Tauranga property, the High Court ordered removal instead be signed off by the court registrar. This followed Ken Bolton’s thirty years’ mishandling of their late father’s estate.
Ken took over estate administration in 1993, after the death of his sister, the prior executor.
The High Court was told that after their father’s death in 1975, his three children as beneficiaries mutually agreed that one of their number, Alan, would buy their father’s Sutherland Road property. Ken said he would take care of the paperwork, to save legal costs. Alan handed over $20,000 cash. He paid the balance in gold bars then valued at around $80,000. Ken was to sell this gold. He didn’t. He placed the gold bars with Gold Corp on the assumption this would generate a good return. The value of these gold bars was lost when GoldCorp went into liquidation in the 1980s, insolvent.
Unbeknown to Alan, Ken never transferred to him title for Sutherland Road. Ken instead transferred Sutherland Road to a company he controlled and signed a mortgage giving himself rights as secured creditor over the property. Rating charges Alan paid to Ken were not handed on to Tauranga Council. The full picture later emerged when Alan learnt of a threatened Council sale for rate arrears.
The High Court removed Ken as executor of their late father’s estate, appointing Perpetual Trust in his place. Perpetual found Ken unco-operative. He did not respond to requests for removal of the Sutherland Road mortgage.
Justice Walker subsequently ruled there was no justification for the mortgage. She ordered Ken remove the mortgage within fourteen days, failing that court staff could sign off on the mortgage discharge. Justice Walker signalled Ken would be held liable for the estate’s legal costs having forced a court hearing to have the mortgage removed.
Perpetual Trust v. Bolton – High Court (11.05.23)
23.066