Bankruptcy Act 1869
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1869 c. 71 |
Bankruptcy Act, 1869
(32 & 33 Vict.) CHAP. 71.
An Act to consolidate and amend the Law of Bankruptcy.
[9th August 1869]
W hereas it is expedient to consolidate and amend the law relating to Bankruptcy:
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Preliminary.
1 Short title.
This Act may be cited as ‘The Bankruptcy Act, 1869.’
2 Application of Act.
This Act shall not, except in so far as is expressly provided, apply to Scotland or Ireland.
3 Commencement of Act.
This Act shall not come into operation until the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy, which date is herein-after referred to as the commencement of this Act.
4 Interpretation of certain terms in the Act:
In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context, the following terms have the meanings herein-after respectively assigned to them; that is to say,
‘The Court’ shall mean the court having jurisdiction in bankruptcy, as by this Act provided:
‘The registrar’ shall mean the registrar of ‘the Court’ as above defined:
‘Prescribed’ shall mean prescribed by rules of Court to be made as in this Act provided:
‘Property’ shall mean and include money, goods, things in action, land, and every description of property, whether real or personal; also, obligations, easements, and every description of estate, interest and profit, present or future, vested or contingent, arising out of or incident to property as above defined:
‘Debt provable in bankruptcy’ shall include any debt or liability by this Act made provable in bankruptcy:
‘Person’ shall include a body corporate:
‘Trader’ shall, for the purposes of this Act, mean the several persons in that behalf mentioned in the first schedule to this Act annexed.
5 Exclusion of companies and large partnership.
A partnership, association, or company corporate, or registered under ‘The Companies Act, 1862,’ shall not be adjudged bankrupt under this Act.
PART I.
Adjudication and Vesting of Property.
Adjudication.
6 Petition for adjudication in bankruptcy.
A single creditor, or two or more creditors if the debt due to such single creditor, or the aggregate amount of debts due to such several creditors, from any debtor, amount to a sum of not less than fifty pounds, may present a petition to the Court, praying that the debtor be adjudged a bankrupt, and alleging as the ground for such adjudication any one or more of the following acts or defaults, herein-after deemed to be and included under the expression ‘acts of bankruptcy:’
(1) (1.) That the debtor has, in England or elsewhere, made a conveyance or assignment of his property to a trustee or trustees for the benefit of his creditors generally:
(2) (2.) That the debtor has, in England or elsewhere, made a fraudulent conveyance, gift, delivery, or transfer of his property or of any part thereof:
(3) (3.) That the debtor has, with intent to defeat or delay his creditors, done any of the following things, namely, departed out of England, or being out of England remained out of England; or being a trader departed from his dwelling house, or otherwise absented himself; or begun to keep house; or suffered himself to be outlawed:
(4) (4.) That the debtor has filed in the prescribed manner in the Court a declaration admitting his inability to pay his debts:
(5) (5.) That execution issued against the debtor on any legal process for the purpose of obtaining payment of not less than fifty pounds has in the case of a trader been levied by seizure and sale of his goods:
(6) (6.) That the creditor presenting the petition has served in the prescribed manner on the debtor a debtor's summons requiring the debtor to pay a sum due, of an amount of not less than fifty pounds, and the debtor being a trader has for the space of seven days, or not being a trader has for the space of three weeks succeeding the service of such summons, neglected to pay such sum, or to secure or compound for the same.
But no person shall be adjudged a bankrupt on any of the above grounds unless the act of bankruptcy on which the adjudication is grounded has occurred within six months before the presentation of the petition for adjudication; moreover, the debt of the petitioning creditor must be a liquidated sum due at law or in equity, and must not be a secured debt, unless the petitioner state in his petition that he will be ready to give up such security for the benefit of the creditors in the event of the debtor being adjudicated a bankrupt, or unless the petitioner is willing to give an estimate of the value of his security, in which latter case he may be admitted as a petitioning creditor to the extent of the balance of the debt due to him after deducting the value so estimated, but he shall, on an application being made by the trustee within the prescribed time after the date of adjudication, give up his security to such trustee for the benefit of the creditors upon payment of such estimated value.
7 Proceedings in relation to a debtor's summons.
A debtor's summons may be granted by the court on a creditor proving to its satisfaction that a debt sufficient to support a petition in bankruptcy is due to him from the person against whom the summons is sought, and that the creditor has failed to obtain payment of his debt, after using reasonable efforts to do so. The summons shall be in the prescribed form, resembling, as nearly as circumstances admit, a writ issued by one of Her Majesty's superior courts. It shall state that in the event of the debtor failing to pay the sum specified in the summons, or to compound for the same to the satisfaction of the creditor, a petition may be presented against him, praying that he may be adjudged a bankrupt. The summons shall have an endorsement thereon to the like effect, or such other prescribed endorsement as may be best calculated to indicate to the debtor the nature of the document served upon him, and the consequences of inattention to the requisitions therein made.
Any debtor served with a debtor's summons may apply to the court, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time, to dismiss such summons, on the ground that he is not indebted to the creditor serving such summons, or that he is not indebted to such amount as will justify such creditor in presenting a bankruptcy petition against him; and the court may dismiss the summons, with or without costs, if satisfied with the allegations made by the debtor, or it may, upon such security (if any) being given as the court may require for payment to the creditor of the debt alleged by him to be due, and the costs of establishing such debt, stay all proceedings on the summons for such time as will be required for the trial of the question relating to such debt: Provided that when the summons shall have issued from the London Court of Bankruptcy, such trial shall be had either before such Court or before any other Court of competent jurisdiction, and when the summons shall have issued from a county court, before such court in all cases in which it has now jurisdiction, and in all other cases before some competent tribunal.
8 Proceedings on petition.
A petition praying that a debtor may be adjudged a bankrupt, in this Act referred to as a bankruptcy petition, shall be served in the prescribed manner. At the hearing the Court shall require proof of the debt of the petitioning creditor, and of the trading, if necessary, and of the act of bankruptcy, or, if more than one act of bankruptcy is alleged in the petition, of some one of the alleged acts of bankruptcy, and, if satisfied with such proof, shall adjudge the debtor to, be bankrupt. The Court may adjourn the petition, either conditionally or unconditionally, for the procurement of further evidence, or for any other just cause, or may dismiss the petition, with or without costs, as the Court thinks just.
9 Proceedings if debt of petitioning creditor is contested.
Where the debtor appears on the petition, and denies that he is indebted to the petitioner, or that he is indebted to such amount as would justify the petitioner in presenting a bankruptcy petition against him, the Court, upon such security (if any) being given as the Court may require, for payment to the petitioner of any debt which may be established against him in due course of law, and of the costs of establishing such debt, may stay all proceedings on the petition for such time as may be required for trial of the question relating to such debt, and such trial shall be had in manner herein-before provided with respect to disputed debts under debtors summonses.
Where proceedings are stayed the Court may, if by reason of the delay caused by such stay of proceedings or for any other cause it thinks just, adjudge the debtor a bankrupt on the petition of some other creditor, and shall thereupon dismiss, upon such terms as it thinks just, the petition proceedings in which have been stayed as aforesaid.
10 Advertisement of order of adjudication.
A copy of an order of the Court adjudging the debtor to be bankrupt shall be published in the London Gazette, and be advertised locally in such manner (if any) as may be prescribed, and the date of such order shall be the date of the adjudication for the purposes of this Act, and the production of a copy of the Gazette containing...
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