whom he represents to the company, exclusive of any monies The Court may, at any time after making an order for winding up a company, and either before or after it has ascertained the sufficiency of the assets of the company, make calls on and order payment thereof by all or any of the contributories for the time being settled on the list of contributories, to the extent of their liability, for payment of all or any sums it deems necessary to satisfy the debts and liabilities of the company, and the costs, charges, and expenses of winding it up, and for the adjustment of the rights of the contributories amongst themselves, and it may, in making a call, take into consideration the probability that some of the contributories upon whom the same is made may partly or wholly fail to pay their respective portions of the same. Power of make calls. Courts to The Court may order any contributory, purchaser, or other Power Court to person from whom money is due to the company to pay the order pay bank. same into the Bank of England or any branch thereof to the ment into account of the official liquidator instead of to the official liquidator, and such order may be enforced in the same manner as if it had directed payment to the official liquidator. All monies, bills, notes, and other securities paid and delivered Regulation into the Bank of England or any branch thereof in the event of a company being wound up by the Court, shall be subject to such order and regulation for the keeping of the account of such monies and other effects, and for the payment and delivery in, or investment and payment and delivery out of the same as the Court may direct. of account with Court. Provision in case of representative contributory not paying monies or dered. Order conclusive evidence. Court may exclude creditors not proving within certain time. Proceedings in the Court of the Vice Warden of the Stan naries on proof of debts. If any person made a contributory as personal representative of a deceased contributory makes default in paying any sum ordered to be paid by him, proceedings may be taken for administering the personal or real estates of such deceased contributory, or either of such estates, and of compelling payment thereout of the monies due. Any order made by the Court in pursuance of this Act upon any contributory shall, subject to the provisions herein contained for appealing against such order, be conclusive evidence that the monies, if any, thereby appearing to be due or ordered to be paid are due, and all other pertinent matters stated in such order are to be taken to be truly stated as against all persons, and in all proceedings whatsoever, with the exception of proceedings taken against the real estate of any deceased contributory, in which case such order shall only be prima facic evidence for the purpose of charging his real estate, unless his heirs or devisees were on the list of contributories at the time of the order being made. The Court may fix a certain day or certain days on or within which creditors of the company are to prove their debts or claims, or to be excluded from the benefit of made before such debts are proved. any distribution If in the course of proving the debts and claims of creditors in the Court of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries any debt or claim is disputed by the official liquidator or by any creditor or contributory, or appears to the Court to be open to question, the Court shall have power, subject to appeal as hereinafter provided, to adjudicate upon it, and for that purpose the said Court shall have and exercise all needful powers of inquiry touching the same by affidavit or by oral examination of witnesses or of parties, whether voluntarily offering themselves for examination or summoned to attend by compulsory process of the Court, or to produce documents before the Court; and the Court shall also have power, incidentally, to decide on the validity and extent of any lien or charge claimed by any creditor on any property of the company in respect of such debt, and to make declarations of right, binding on all persons interested; and for the more satisfactory determination of any question of fact, or mixed question of law and fact arising on such inquiry, the Vice-Warden shall have power, if he thinks fit to direct and settle any action or issue to be tried either on the common law side of his court, or by a common or special jury, before the justices of assize in and for the counties of Cornwall or Devon, or at any sitting of one of the superior Courts in London or Middlesex, which action or issue shall accordingly be tried in due course of law, and without other or further consent of parties; and the finding of the jury in such action or issue shall be conclusive of the facts found, unless the judge who tried it makes known to the Vice-Warden that he was not satisfied with the finding, or unless it appears to the Vice-Warden that, in consequence of miscarriage, accident, or the subsequent discovery of fresh material evidence, such finding ought not to be conclusive. The Court shall adjust the rights of the contributories amongst themselves, and distribute any surplus that may remain amongst the parties entitled thereto. Court to ad just rights of contribu tories. order costs. The Court may, in the event of the assets being insufficient to Court to satisfy the liabilities, make an order as to the payment out of the estate of the company of the costs, charges, and expenses incurred in winding up any company in such order of priority as the Court thinks just. of company When the affairs of the company have been completely wound Dissolution up, the Court shall make an order that the company be dissolved from the date of such order, and the company shall be dissolved accordingly. Any order so made shall be reported by the official liquidator Registrar to the registrar, who shall make a minute accordingly in his books of the dissolution of such company. If the official liquidator makes default in reporting to the registrar, in the case of a company being wound up by the Court, the order that the company be dissolved, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during which he is so in default. Any petition for winding up a company by the Court under this Act shall constitute a lis pendens within the terms of the Act passed in the session holden in the second and third years of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter eleven, and intituled "An Act for the better protection of purchasers against judgments, crown debts, lis pendens, and fiats in bankruptcy, pro to make minute of dissolution of company. Penalty on not reporting company. dissolution of Petition to be lis pendens. vided the same is duly registered in manner required by such Act concerning suits in equity (a). Power of summon per- suspected of having property of company. Special provision as to court of Vice Stannaries. SECTION IV. EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OF COURT. The Court may, after it has made an order for winding up the company, summon before it any officer of the company or person known or suspected to have in his possession any of the estate or effects of the company, or supposed to be indebted to the company, or any person whom the Court may deem capable of giving information concerning the trade, dealings, estate, or effects of the company; and the Court may require any such officer or person to produce any books, papers, deeds, writings, or other documents in his custody or power relating to the company; and if any person so summoned, after being tendered a reasonable sum for his expenses, refuses to come before the Court at the time appointed, having no lawful impediment (made known to the Court at the time of its sitting, and allowed by it), the Court may cause such person to be apprehended, and brought before the Court of examination; nevertheless, in cases where any person claims any lien on papers, deeds, or writings, or documents produced by him, such production shall be without prejudice to such lien, and the Court shall have jurisdiction in the winding up to determine all questions relating to such lien. If, after an order for winding up in the court of the ViceWarden of the Stannaries, it appears that any person claims Warden of the property in, or any lien, legal or equitable, upon any of the machinery, materials, ores, or effects on the mine or on premises occupied by the company in connection with the mine, or to which the company was, at the time of the order, prima facie entitled, it shall be lawful for the Vice-Warden or the registrar to adjudicate upon such claim on interpleader in the manner provided by section eleven of the Act passed in the eighteenth year of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter thirty-two; and any action or issue directed upon such interpleader may, if the (a) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 98, ss. 98-114. Vice-Warden think fit, be tried in his Court or at the assizes or the sittings in London or Middlesex, before a judge of one of the superior courts, in the manner and on the terms and conditions herein before provided in the case of disputed debts and claims of creditors. The Court may examine upon oath, either by word of mouth Examination of parties by or upon written interrogatories, any person appearing or brought Court. before them in manner aforesaid concerning the affairs, dealings, estate, or effects of the company, and may reduce into writing the answers of every such person, and require him to subscribe. the same. Power to arrest contributory about to abscond, or to remove or conceal The Court may, at any time before or after it has made an order for winding up a company, upon proof being given that there is probable cause for believing that any contributory to such company is about to quit the United Kingdom, or otherwise abscond, or to remove or conceal any of his goods or any of his chattels, for the purpose of evading payment of calls, or for property. avoiding examination in respect of the affairs of the company, cause such contributory to be arrested, and his books, papers, monies, securities for monies, goods, and chattels to be seized, and him and them to be safely kept until such time as the Court may order. Any power by this Act conferred on the Court shall be deemed to be in addition to and not in restriction of any other powers subsisting, either at law or in equity, of instituting proceedings against any contributory, or the estate of any contributory, or against any debtor of the company for the recovery of any call or other sums due from such contributory or debtor, or his estate, and such proceedings may be instituted accordingly (a). Powers of Court cumu lative. SECTION V. ENFORCEMENT OF AND APPEAL FROM ORDERS. enforce orders. All orders made by the Court of Chancery in England or Power to Ireland under this Act may be enforced in the same manner in which orders of such Court of Chancery made in any suit (a) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 89, ss. 115-119. |