BANKRUPTCY. Since the article BaNsiturrev in the first volume of this Cycloptedia was written, the law relating to bankruptcy and insolvency has undergone such extension and alteration by the legis lature during the last session of parliament (24 & 25 Viet., c. 134) that a short review thereof is necessary.
The Court of Bankruptcy will henceforth consist of the present Commissioners in Bankruptcy, and to them is confided all needful powers of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity and of the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors. Tho county court judges are hence forth to exercise in the country all the powers of the present district commissioners, and vacancies in the country district commissionerslaipe will not henceforth be filled up ; and the London commissioners are, rs vacancies occur, to be reduced to three. The Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors is abolished, and the jurisdiction of the County Courts in insolvency is discontinued. The present Court of Appeal in Chancery is preserved, and appeals lie to it from the County Courts is bankruptcy as well as from the Court of Bankruptcy proper.
Questions of fact may, under the directions of the Court of Appeal, be tried in bankruptcy by juries, or issues may be sent to be tried at law. Sworn shorthand writers may be appointed ; and these will cer tainly form a novel feature in our administration of justice.
The principal feature of the recent act is that nen-traders are brought within the privileges and liabilities of bankruptcy, although the distinction between a trader and a non-trader is still for some pur poses preserved. This distinction will appear from the following summary of the alterations introduced as to acts of bankruptcy.
Acts of Bankruptcy by traders are continued as hitherto, subject to such additions and alterations as are here noticed. Any person whether a trader or non-trader, may be adjudged a bankrupt for lying in prison for debt or after a detainer for debt, or in the case of a trader for fourteen days, instead of twenty-one days as heretofore, and in the case of a non-trader for two months, unless be is prepared with sufficient security for the debts in respect of which he is so imprisoned or detained ; or for escaping from prison where detained for debt, A Trader Debtor whose goods are seized and sold under judgment for a debt or money demand exceeding 501., is held to have committed
an act of bankruptcy at the time of the seizure; notwithstanding which the sheriff may, unless a petition for adjudication intervene, proceed to sell the goods seized; but he must retain the proceeds for seven days, after which period he may pay them over to the execution creditor, who, however, has to pay them back, subject to deduction of the costs of action and execution, to the assignees in bankruptcy if the execution trader debtor is adjudicated a bankrupt within fourteen days from the day of sale. A non-trader may be made bankrupt by depart ing or remaining out of this realm with intent to defeat or delay his creditors, or by making some fraudulent gift or conveyance of any of his property, or by filing in court a declaration of insolvency followed, within two months, by a petition for adjudication of bankruptcy.
Acts of Bankruptcy after Judgment Debtor Sammons.—Every judg ment creditor for a debt of 50/. or upwards, may sue out against his debtor at the end of one week from the date of the judgment, if he be a trader, or at the end of one calendar month if he be a non-trader, a judgment debtor summons requiring him to appear and be examined touching his ability to pay the debt. In the same way disobedience to a peremptory order in equity, in bankruptcy, or lunacy, directing pay ment of money on a day certain may be followed by a similar judgment debtor summons after the expiration, in the case of a trader, of seven days, or in the case of a non-trader of two calendar months, from the day fixed for payment. Trader debtor summonses should be served personally, except in the case of persons in custody when service may be made on the sheriff, or other person in whose custody the debtor is. Where personal service cannot be effected, and the debtor is keeping out of the way, the summons may be advertised as directed by the act. The procedure upon the return of the summons is particularly pro vided, and the court may, upon non-payment of the debt, and whether the debtor appears or not, adjudge him a bankrupt ,without any petition for adjudication ; but a debtor thus adjudicated upon in his absence may, within seven days from receiving notice of the adjudica tion, appear.and show cause against it.