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causes specified in the Act (1), and that a bill of sale must be made or given for a consideration of not less than £30 (2).

tion.

Upon registration the bill of sale must be accompanied by an Registraaffidavit stating the time of such bill of sale being made or given, and of its due execution and attestation and a description of the residence and occupation of the persons making or giving the same, and of every attesting witness to such bill of sale (3).

The registration of a bill of sale must be renewed every five years, and the omission to renew it renders the bill of sale wholly void (4).

When a bill of sale is given subject to any defeasance or con- Defeadition or declaration of trust not contained in the body thereof, sance, &c. such defeasance, condition, or declaration is deemed to be part of the bill, and must be written on the same paper or parchment before registration (5).

(1) The causes specified in the Act for which personal chattels may be seized or taken possession of, are as follows:

Personal chattels assigned under a bill of sale shall not be liable to be seized or taken possession of by the grantee for any other than the following causes:

(1.) If the grantor shall make de-
fault in payment of the sum or
sums of money thereby secured
at the time therein provided for
payment, or in the performance
of any covenant or agreement
contained in the bill of sale and
necessary for maintaining the
security;

(2.) If the grantor shall become a
bankrupt, or suffer the said goods
or any of them to be distrained
for rent, rates, or taxes;
(3.) If the grantor shall fraudu-
lently either remove or suffer the
said goods, or any of them, to
be removed from the premises;
(4.) If the grantor shall not, with-
out reasonable excuse, upon de-
mand in writing by the grantee,
produce to him his last receipts
for rent, rates and taxes;
(5.) If execution shall have been

levied against the goods of the
grantor under any judgment at
law:

Provided that the grantor may within five days from the seizure or

VOL. I.

taking possession of any chattels on
account of any of the above-mentioned
causes apply to the High Court, or
to a judge thereof in chambers, and
such Court or judge, if satisfied that
by payment of money or otherwise
the said cause of seizure no longer
exists, may restrain the grantee from
removing or selling the said chattels,
or may make such other order as may
seem just. (Bills of Sale Act, 1882,
8. 7.)

(2) Davis v. Usher, 12 Q. B. D.
492.

(3) Bills of Sale Act, 1878, s. 10. See as to what is sufficient description, Reed on Bills of Sale, 7th ed. p. 150, et seq.; see also Greenham v. Child, 24 Q. B. D. 29; Central Bank of London v. Hawkins, 62 L. J. 901, where a bill given in an assumed name, by which the grantor was known and recognised, was held to be duly registered.

(4) Fenton v. Blythe, 25 Q. B. D. 417. The renewal of the registration is effected by filing with the registrar an affidavit stating the date of the bill of sale, and of the last registration thereof, and the names, residences and occupations of the parties thereto as stated therein, and that the bill of sale is still a subsisting security Bills of Sale Act, 1878, 8. 11.

(5) Bills of Sale Act, 1878, s. 10.

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Assign

ment of future book debts.

Deben

tures.

The transfer or assignment of a registered bill of sale need not be registered (1).

As book debts are not personal chattels within the principal Act future book debts may be assigned in a bill of sale, and such assignment will be good against creditors. In the very important case of Tailby v. Official Receiver (2), the House of Lords decided that an assignment of all future book debts in a bill of sale was good. Lord Macnaghten pointed out that it had long been settled that future property, possibilities and expectances are assignable in equity for value. "The mode or form of assignment is immaterial, provided the intention of the parties is clear. To effectuate the intention an assignment for value, in terms present and immediate, has always been regarded in equity as a contract binding on the conscience of the assignor, and so binding the subject-matter of the contract when it comes into existence, if it is of such a nature and so described as to be capable of being ascertained and identified. The origin of the doctrine that an assignment of future book debts is not limited to any specified business, modern though it be, is lost in obscurity. It was admitted by the learned counsel for the respondent that a trader may assign his future book debts in a specified business. Why should the line be drawn there? Between men of full age and competent understanding ought there to be any limit to the contract of purchase but that imposed by positive law or dictated by considerations of morality or public policy? The limit proposed is purely arbitrary, and I think meaningless and unreasonable. The rule laid down by the Court of Appeal would not help to identify or ascertain the subject-matter of the contract in any case. It might have the opposite effect. It would be no benefit to the assignor's general creditors. It might prevent a man from raising money on the credit of his expectations in his existing business on that which is admitted to be capable of assignment-in consequence of the obvious risk that some alteration in the character of the business might impair or defeat the security."

The Act does not apply to "any debentures issued by any mortgage, loan, or other incorporated company, and secured upon the capital stock or goods, chattels, and effects of such company." (3)

() When two bills of sale are given on the same chattels, either wholly or in part, the one first registered has priority: Bills of Sale Act, 1878, s. 10.

(2) 13 App. Cas. 523, 543.

(3) See Read v. Joannon, 25 Q. B.D. 300, ante, p. 284. In a recent case before the House of Lords, Lord Macnaghten said: "To say that the Bills of Sale Act (1878) Amendment Act (1882) is well drawn, or that its mean

ments.

Hiring agreements, i.e., if there be a bona fide sale and re- Hiring letting on hire, are not bills of sale within the Acts, and there- agreefore do not require registration, neither need they be in accordance with the statutory form. The true nature, however, and not the form of the transaction must be regarded, and if the real object be merely to create a security for money, the document is a bill of sale and must be registered (1).

Neither does an absolute bill of sale together with a hiring agreement, if they form separate transactions, come within the Acts (2). It has also been decided that the assignment of a hiring agreement is not a bill of sale within the Acts (3). In a recent case before the House of Lords, it was decided that an agreement by which a colliery company had sold their waggons to the respondents and then taken them upon hire was not a bill of sale within the Acts (4). The test which was applied in this case was, was there a right to redeem? and this question being answered in the negative, it was held that the Bills of Sale Act had no application.

tion.

Bills of sale are to be attested by one or more credible witness Attestaor witnesses not being a party or parties thereto (5). And a bill of sale not being by way of security must be attested by a solicitor of the Supreme Court, and the attestation must state that before the execution of the bill of sale the effect had been explained to the grantor by the attesting witness (6).

former

Acts.

The object of the earlier Bills of Sale Acts, said Lord Object of Herschell, was entirely different from that of 1882. The former enactments were designed for the protection of creditors and to prevent their rights being affected by secret assurances of chattels, which were permitted to remain in the ostensible possession of a person who had parted with his property in them. The bills of sale were therefore void only as against creditors

ing is reasonably clear, would be to affirm a proposition to which I think few lawyers would subscribe, and which seems to be contradicted by the mass of litigation which the Act has produced, and is producing every day. For my own part, the more I have occasion to study the Act, the more convinced I am that it is beset with difficulties which can only be removed by legislation": Thomas v. Kelly, 13 App. Cas. 506.

(1) Ex parte Emerson. Re Hawkins, 41 L. J. (Bankey.) 20; In re Watson. Ex parte Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, 25 Q. B. D. 27.

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(3) In re Davis & Co., Ex parte Rawlings, 22 Q. B. D. 193.

() M., S. and L. Railway Co. v. North Central Wagon Co., 13 App. Cas. 554; and see French v. Bombenard, 60 L. T. 49.

(5) Bills of Sale Amendment Act, 1882, s. 10; and see Blankenstein v. Robertson, 24 Q. B. D. 543.

(") Bills of Sale Act, 1878, s. 10. The Bills of Sale Amendment Act, 1882, s. 10, repeals this, but it would seem only so far as regards bills of sale given by way of security.

Object of Act of 1882.

or their representatives. As between the parties to them they were perfectly valid. The purpose of the Act of 1882 was essentially distinct. It was to prevent needy persons being entrapped into signing complicated documents which they might often be unable to comprehend, and so being subjected by their creditors to the enforcement of harsh and unreasonable provisions. A form was accordingly provided to which bills of sale were to conform, and the result of non-compliance with the statute was to render the bill of sale void even as between the parties to it. But, this being the object, the enactment is limited to bills of sale given "by way of security for the payment of money by the grantor thereof" (1).

(1) M., S. and L. Railway Co. v.
North Central Wagon Co., 13 App.
Cas. 554, 560.

The policy of the Bills of Sale
Act is also considered in Cookson v.
Swire, 9 App. Cas. 653, where it was

considered that there having been an absolute or bonâ fide transfer of the property, a bill of sale which had been given was spent and satisfied, and that none of the Bills of Sale Acts had any application.

CHAPTER XII.

INTESTACY.

Statutes of

Distribu

Before taking leave of the subject of personal property, it Effect of will be necessary for us to consider the rules which govern its descent in case of intestacy. The effect of the Statutes of tion. Distribution (1), and of the Intestates' Estates Act, 1890 (2), by which this subject is regulated, may be briefly stated as follows:

The Intestates' Estates Act, 1890, introduced the following important changes :—

£500

to widow.

Estate ex-
ceeding
£500,
widow to

Sect. 1 provides that the real and personal estate of every Estate not man who shall die intestate after the 1st day of September, 1890, exceeding leaving a widow but no issue shall, in all cases where the net belonging value of such real and personal estates shall not exceed £500, belong to his widow absolutely and exclusively. Sect. 2 provides that "where the net value of the real and personal estates in the preceding section mentioned shall exceed the sum of £500, the widow of such intestate shall be entitled to £500 part thereof absolutely and exclusively, and shall have a charge upon the whole of such real and personal estates for such £500, with interest thereon from the date of the death of the intestate at 4 per cent. per annum until payment." Sect. 3 provides that "as between the real and personal How representatives of such intestate, such charge shall be borne and paid in proportion to the values of the real and personal estates respectively."

Sect. 4 provides that "the provision for the widow intended to be made by this Act shall be in addition and without prejudice to her interest and share in the residue of the real and personal estates of such intestate remaining after payment of the sum of £500, in the same way as if such residue had been the whole of such intestate's real and personal estates, and this Act had not been passed" (3).

(1) 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 10; 1 Jac. 2,

c. 17.

(2) 53 & 54 Vict. c. 29.

(3) Sects. 5 and 6 of the Intestates' Estates Act, 1890, provide for the

valuation of the real and personal
estate as follows:-

"5. The net value of such real
estate as aforesaid shall for the pur-
poses of the Act be estimated in the

have a charge for

£500.

charge to as between realty and personalty. Above pro

be borne

vision to be in addition

to share of residue.

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