McIntosh & Company Ltd v Thompson & Company (Carriers) Ltd
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Judgment Date | 31 July 1932 |
| Date | 31 July 1932 |
| Court | Supreme Court (Irish Free State) |
Supreme Court.
Company - Winding-up - Compulsory liquidation - Insolvency - Moneys due or payable to or for the benefit of the Central Fund - Priority of such moneys - "Rules . . . with regard . . . to debts provable" in sect. 207.Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908 - Meaning of - Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908 (8 Ed. 7, c. 69), sects. 207, 209 - Finance Act, 1924 (No. 27 of 1924), sect. 38.
Sect. 38, sub-sect. 2, of the Finance Act, 1924, enacts:—
"Moneys due or payable to or for the benefit of the Central Fund shall have and be deemed always to have had attached to them all such rights privileges, and priorities as have heretofore attached to debts due to the Crown."
The Supreme Court held that claims fulling within the category of moneys dealt with under sect. 38, sub-sect. 2, of the Finance Act, 1924. not being within the class specially privileged by sect. 209, sub-sect. 1, of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, must be placed, in the compulsory liquidation of an insolvent company, in an intermediate priority next after the debts enumerated in sect. 209, sub-sect. 1, and before the debts due to the general creditors of the company. The words "the same rules shall prevail and be observed with regard . . . to debts provable" in sect. 207 of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, extend to rules affecting questions of priority.
The Supreme Court so held upon an express admission, and without deciding, that the claims involved (being moneys due to the Minister for Finance in respect of fines inflicted on a company for offences under the Motor Car Acts and Roads Acts) were within the provisions of sect. 38, sub-sect. 2, of the Finance Act, 1924.
In re A. & B. Taxis, Ltd., [1931] I. R.. 87, overruled. In re Whitaker; Whitaker v. Palmer,[1901] 1 Ch. 9, applied
Application, on behalf of the Minister for Finance, for an order discharging the order of Meredith J., made 27th April, 1931, and for an order in lieu thereof declaring the Minister for Finance entitled to be paid the sum of £78 17s. 0d., being the amount of fines inflicted on Thompson & Co. (Carriers), Ltd., for offences against the Motor Car Acts and Roads Acts, as a State debt and in priority to the ordinary creditors.
The order of Meredith J., which was appealed from, had declared that the claim of the Minister for Finance made in the winding-up matter, in respect of fines outstanding against Thompson & Co. (Carriers), Ltd., for offences against the Motor Car Acts and Roads Acts, was not payable in the winding-up matter in priority to the claims of the general creditors of the company. The matter had come
before the Court upon a memorandum and notice of motion of the Official Liquidator asking the Court to decide whether the claim of the Minister for Finance or any part thereof was to rank as a preferential claim or not. The order for the winding-up of Thompson & Co. (Carriers), Ltd, by the Court was made on 27th June, 1927, by Meredith J., upon the petition of Charles MacIntosh & Co., Ltd.Cur. adv. vult.
The judgment of the Court was delivered by FitzGibbon J.
| FitzGibbon J. :— |
On the 27th day of June, 1927, an order was made by Mr. Justice Meredith that Thompson & Co. (Carriers), Ltd., be wound up by the Court under the provisions of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908, and Mr. Eustace J. Shott, was appointed official liquidator of the company.
In response to the usual advertisement for claims, the Chief State Solicitor sent in, on May 2nd, 1928, on behalf of the Minister for Finance, a formal demand for £36 2s. 0d., stated to represent "warrants for fines outstanding against the company for offences against the Motor Car Acts and Road Acts," and, on May 15th, 1928, a demand for a further sum of £42 15s. 0d., "for fines inflicted on the company in respect of offences under the same Acts."Particulars giving the date and amount of each fine were annexed, and each demand concluded with an averment that the sum claimed was a preferential debt to the State. The liquidator, having settled the list of debts and claims, submitted, on the 15th of April, 1931, a memorandum for the decision of the Court of the question whether the claim or any part thereof was to rank as a preferential claim or not.
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