Re Drogheda Steampacket Company, Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 18 July 1903
• Date: 18 July 1903
• Court: Chancery Division (Ireland)

IN RE DROGHEDA STEAMPACKET CO., LIMITED.

Chancery Division

Company — Ordinary shares — Arrears of dividend — Claim by shareholder — Contract — Statute of Limitations.

Baring Gould v. Sharpington Combined Pick and Shovel SyndicateELR [1899] 2 Ch. 80.

Eley v. Positive Government Security Life Assurance CompanyELR 1 Ex. D. 88.

In re Cornwall Minerals Railway Co.ELR [1897] 2 Ch. 74.

In re Severn and Wye and Severn Bridge Railway Co.ELR [1896] 1 Ch. 559.

Re Cornwall Minerals Railway CompanyELR [1897] 2 Ch. 74.

Re Severn and Wye and Severn Bridge Railway CompanyELR [1896] 1 Ch. 559.

Smith v. Cork and Bandon Railway I. R. 5 Eq. 65.

512 THE IRISH REPORTS. [1903. itt. R. question of delay as indicating acquiescence, more than to say that 1903. that defence is not met by cases, such as Langstaffe v. Fenwick (1), MAXWELL where the relation of solicitor and client subsisted between the V. TIPPING. parties. The agency fees cannot be charged, and indeed are not claimed, after the death of Tipping. Solicitors for the plaintiff : Corker 8r Lewis. Solicitors for the defendant : Dickie Carson. R. W. L. M. R. IN RE DROGHEDA STEAMPACKET CO., LIMITED. 1903. July 18. Company—Ordinary shares—Arrears of dividend—Claim by shareholder -Contract—Statute of Limitations. Dividends on ordinary shares in a Company had been declared and became payable more than six and less than twenty years before the claims for them were made by the shareholders Held, that the share certificates, as governed by the articles of associaÂtion, constituted a specialty debt, and that consequently the arrears of dividend were recoverable after the lapse of six years. APPLICATION under section 138 of the Companies Act, 1862, for an order declaring the dividend of Thomas Leonard statute barred. It appeared from the affidavit of Laurence Donegan, one of the liquidators appointed in the voluntary winding up of the Drogheda Steam Packet Company, that the Company was originally constiÂtuted in 1846 under a deed of settlement. On 1st November, 1856, the Company was registered under the Joint Stock Companies Act of 1856, and in 1901 a new memorandum and articles of association were adopted, and were confirmed by an order of the Master of the Rolls on the 25th of July, 1901, and the Company was registered with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies on the 21st of September, 1901. VOL. I.1 CHANCERY DIVISION. 513 The dividend of £18 15s. claimed by Thomas Leonard was M. R. portion of the dividend declared by the Company in January, 1885, 1903. and appeared to have been sent to Thomas Leonard by cheque or In re DROGHEDA dividend warrant, and lost by him. S.S. Co. The right of Thomas Leonard as an ordinary shareholder in the Company to dividends was governed by clause 128 of the Articles of Association, which provided that "subject to the rights of the holders of shares created and issued under the proÂvisions of Articles 47 and 48," which provided for the increase of capital by...