proceeding desire, or which one of them and the judge ss. 97-99. of the county court may desire, to have determined in the first instance in the High Court, the judge shall state the facts, in the form of a special case, for the opinion of the High Court. The special case and the proceedings, or such of them as may be required, shall be transmitted to the High Court for the purposes of the determination.

chambers of

98. Subject to the provisions of this Act and to Exercise in general rules the judge of the High Court exercising High Court jurisdiction in bankruptcy may exercise in chambers the jurisdiction. whole or any part of his jurisdiction.

The matters and applications, which must be heard in open Court, are specified in r. 5.

Adjournments may be made from Chambers to Court or from Court to Chambers (r. 7).

If all the contending parties require any matter or application to be adjourned from Chambers into Court it must be so adjourned (r. 7).

99.-(1.) The registrars in bankruptcy of the High Jurisdiction in bankruptcy Court, and the registrars of a county court having juris- of registrar. diction in bankruptcy, shall have the powers and jurisdiction in this section mentioned, and any order made or act done by such registrars in the exercise of the said powers and jurisdiction shall be deemed the order or act of the Court.

(2.) Subject to general rules1 limiting the powers conferred by this section, a registrar shall have power(a.) To hear bankruptcy petitions, and to make receiving orders and adjudications thereon: (b.) To hold the public examination of debtors: (c.) To grant orders of discharge where the application is not opposed:

(d.) To approve compositions or schemes of arrangement when they are not opposed:

(e.) To make interim orders in

any case of

urgency:

s. 99.

(f) To make any order or exercise any jurisdiction which by any rule in that behalf is prescribed

as proper to be made or exercised in chambers:2 (g.) To hear and determine any unopposed or ex parte application:

(h.) To summon and examine any person known or suspected to have in his possession effects of the debtor or to be indebted to him, or capable

of giving information respecting the debtor, his dealings or property.

(3.) The Registrars in bankruptcy of the High Court shall also have power to grant orders of discharge and certificates of removal of disqualifications, and to approve compositions and schemes of arrangement.

(4) A registrar shall not have power to commit for contempt of court.

(5.) The Lord Chancellor may from time to time by order direct that any specified registrar of a county court shall have and exercise all the powers of a bankruptcy registrar of the High Court.

The combined effect of this section and r. 5, is that :

A Registrar in bankruptcy of the High Court may hear and determine any matter or application except the following:

1. Appeals from the Board of Trade to the High Court.

2. Applications to set aside or avoid any settlement, conveyance, transfer,
security, or payment, or to declare for or against the title of the
trustee to any property adversely claimed.

3. Applications for the committal of any person to prison for contempt.
4. Appeals against the rejection of a proof, or applications to expunge or
reduce a proof, where the amount of the proof exceeds £200.
5. Applications for the trial of issues of fact with a jury, and the trial of
such issues.

And a Registrar in bankruptcy of a County Court may hear and determine the same matters and applications as a Registrar of the High Court with the following exceptions

1. Applications for certificates of removal of disqualifications.

2. Applications, when opposed, for orders of discharge.

3. Applications, when opposed, to approve compositions or schemes of

arrangement.

Unless these exceptions have been removed by an order from the Lord

Chancellor under sub-s. (5), suprà.

SS.

Registrars in bankruptcy of the High Court are also empowered to exercise the jurisdiction and powers of the High Court under s. 5 of The 100-102. Debtors Act 1869 (s. 103 (2) and r. 265).

But any matter or application pending before a Registrar shall, if the Judge by any special or general order so direct, be adjourned to be heard before the Judge (Additional Rule, 1883, infrà).

100. A county court shall, for the purposes of its Powers of bankruptcy jurisdiction, in addition to the ordinary county court. powers of the Court, have all the powers and jurisdiction.

of the High Court, and the orders of the Court may be enforced accordingly in manner prescribed.

The extensive jurisdiction given to a County Court by this section and s. 102 is the same as that which it held under ss. 66 and 72 of the Bankruptcy Act, 1869, with this important exception : that it is prohibited from exercising it in respect of a claim not arising out of the bankruptcy which might before this Act have been tried in the High Court (i. e., one which would not have been within the ordinary jurisdiction of the County Court), unless the matter in dispute does not in the opinion of the County Court Judge exceed £200, or the parties consent to the jurisdiction when the matter in dispute amounts to £200 or upwards (s. 102 (1)).

Under the Act of 1869, it was laid down that when the amount at stake was large, or serious questions of character were involved, and the County Court Judge had a discretionary power to hear the matter, he ought to refuse to hear it and to leave the trustee to his remedy by action in the ordinary way (Ex pte Armitage, In re Learoyd, 17 Ch. D., 13; Ex pte Price, In re Roberts, 21 Ch. D., 553).

Questions of law may be stated in the form of a special case for the opinion of the High Court if all the parties to the proceedings or one of them and the County Court Judge so desires (s. 97 (3)).

When a matter has been referred to arbitration by consent the County Court Judge can issue a subpoena for the attendance of a witness before the arbitrator (In re Ackary, Ex pte Bolland, 3 Ch. D., 125).

Trade to make payments in

101. Where any moneys or funds have been received Board of by an official receiver or by the Board of Trade, and the Court makes an order declaring that any person is accordance entitled to such moneys or funds the Board of Trade tions of Court. shall make an order for the payment thereof to the person so entitled as aforesaid.

with direc

bankruptcy

102.-(1.) Subject to the provisions of this Act, every General court having jurisdiction in bankruptcy under this Act power of shall have full power to decide all questions of priorities, courts. and all other questions whatsoever, whether of law or

s. 102.

fact, which may arise in any case of bankruptcy coming within the cognizance of the Court, or which the Court may deem it expedient or necessary to decide for the purpose of doing complete justice or making a complete distribution of property in any such case.

Provided that the jurisdiction hereby given shall not be exercised by the county court for the purpose of adjudicating upon any claim, not arising out of the bankruptcy, which might heretofore have been enforced by action in the High Court, unless all parties to the proceeding consent thereto, or the money, money's worth, or right in dispute does not in the opinion of the judge exceed in value two hundred pounds.

This clause is substantially a re-enactment of s. 72 of the Bankruptcy Act, 1869, which was frequently before the notice of the Courts. It is, however, difficult to extract from the decided cases any definite rules to determine whether, notwithstanding the comprehensive language of the section, a particular matter arising out of, or connected with, a bankruptcy, ought to be tried in the Court of Bankruptcy, or in the ordinary courts.

The clearest exposition of that section is, perhaps, to be found in the judgment of Selborne, L. C., in one of the earliest cases (Ellis v. Silber, L. R. 8, Ch. 83, at p. 86): “The debtor and the creditors, as the parties to the administration in bankruptcy, are subject to that jurisdiction. The trustees or assignees, as the persons intrusted with that administration, are subject to that jurisdiction. The assets which come to their hands and the mode of administering them are subject to that jurisdiction; and there may be, and I believe are, some special classes of transactions which, under special clauses of the Acts of Parliament, may be specially dealt with as regards third parties. But the general proposition, that whenever the assignees or trustees in bankruptcy or the trustees under such deeds as these have a demand at law or in equity as against a stranger to the bankruptcy, then that demand is to be prosecuted in the Court of Bankruptcy, appears to me to be a proposition entirely without the warrant of anything in the Acts of Parliament, and wholly unsupported by any trace or vestige whatever of authority."

Again, in In re Motion, Maule v. Davis, L. R. 9, Ch. 192, at p. 210, Selborne, L. C., in delivering the judgment of the Court, says, with reference of the same section : "But it does not, as we understand it, at all enable the Court of Bankruptcy to draw compulsorily within the sphere of its jurisdiction property or the owners of property not vested in the assignee, and not originally subject to the administration in bankruptcy. Still less does it authorize that Court, when a decree for sale and accounts has been made in a Chancery suit against solvent partners of a bankrupt, to treat such a decree as giving rights to be worked out in Bankruptcy and not in

Chancery. If, indeed, the Court of Bankruptcy finds property of the bankrupt (whether a share in partnership assets or of any other kind) in the hands of a purchaser with notice of fraud, to whom it has come by a fraudulent conveyance from an assignee in bankruptcy, it may well hold that it has power to order such purchaser to reconvey and revest in a substituted assignee the property so fraudulently acquired." (cf. Ex pte Anderson, In re Anderson, L. R. 5, Ch. 473).

More recent cases determine that, in questions between the trustee and a stranger, if the trustee claim by the same title as the bankrupt, it may well be left to the decision of the ordinary tribunals; but, on the other hand, if his claim is based upon some provision of the Bankruptcy Act, i.e., on some higher ground which would not be available to the bankrupt, the Court of Bankruptcy is the proper forum (Ex pte Brown, In re Yates, II Ch. D., 148; cf. Ex pte Harrison, In re Harrison, 13 Ch. D., 603, s.c. on appeal sub tit. Ex pte Butters, In re Harrison, 14 Ch. D., 265).

A trustee who has successfully applied to a Court of Bankruptcy to set aside a bill of sale and obtained an order for the payment of the proceeds of the sale of the goods to himself, cannot afterwards bring an action of trover to recover the difference between the value of the goods and the amount realised by the sale, for he has already waived the tort (Smith v. Baker, L. R. 8, C. P., 350).

The jurisdiction of the Chancery Division of the High Court is not ousted except by express enactment, but it will exercise that jurisdiction only in cases where the Court of Bankruptcy is unable to give adequate relief (Stone v. Thomas, L. R. 5, Ch. 219; Martin v. Powning, L. R. 4, Ch. 356).

Although this Part (VI.) of the Act is not expressly referred to in s. 18 dealing with compositions, it would seem that "bankruptcy" here includes "composition" or "scheme of arrangement;" see In re Thorpe, Ex pte Hartel, L. R. 8, Ch. 743.

As to the discretionary exercise of these powers by a County Court, see notes to s. 100.

Cases held to be within the jurisdiction of the Court of Bankruptcy :— A suit was instituted by the separate creditors of a deceased partner for the administration of his estate. Subsequently the surviving partner became bankrupt. An injunction was granted restraining the suit on the ground that questions might arise between the two estates which could more properly be determined in that Court (Morley v. White, L. R. 8, Ch. 214). Where a co-defendant with the trustee of a bankrupt becomes bankrupt after the institution of the suit (Ex pte Gordon, In re Dixon, L. R. 8, Ch. 555).

An action by a bill of sale holder against a trustee in respect of goods of the bankrupt of which he has taken possession (Ex pte Cohen, In re Sparke, L. R. 7, Ch. 20).

If property of the bankrupt has come to the hands of a purchaser with notice of a fraud from the trustee (In re Motion, L. R. 9, Ch. 192).

An order for foreclosure was made on the application of the mortgagee against a trustee, but the Court of Appeal questioned the jurisdiction of the Court to make the order (Ex pte Fletcher, In re Hart, 10 Ch. D., 610). Where a person outside the bankruptcy is willing to submit the deter

s. 102.

K