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Author Alan Duff has been given a stay of financial execution with a court adopting a proposal for him to pay bills now totalling more than $4 million.
The reprieve came yesterday when Associate Judge David Gendall stayed High Court bankruptcy proceedings because all-but one of a growing list of creditors supports proposals banking on Mr Duff's ability to bounce back from his property investment failures to resurrect a literary career which produced the best-seller Once Were Warriors.
Mr Duff is understood to be still in France writing the two books he hopes will pay the bills over the next 18 months.
At a brief hearing in Napier, it was revealed that in recent weeks the number of creditors has climbed from 19 to 25 and the debt by more than $1 million from the $3 million-plus disclosed when Associate Judge Gendall adjourned the proceedings on October 15.
The total of $3,656,223.30 in the proposal climbs to about $4.07m with the addition of about $424,000 owed to two Hastings sisters who, according to their lawyer Carol Hall, have agreed to be part of the proposal, a position accepted by Mr Duff although they had not formally become judgment creditors.
The only creditor objecting to the proposal was Auckland financier Mutual Finance Group, owed about $32,000 plus interest and represented yesterday by barrister Michael Wenley, who asked the court to record the objection, but did not elaborate.
Philip Ross, who appeared for Mr Duff, pointed out the MFG debt was among the smaller sums owed.
- NZPA
