The parties disputed whether a particular creditor was entitled to vote at the first meeting. The section excluded a right to vote in the case of creditors in respect of ‘any unliquidated or contingent debt, or any debt the value of which is not ascertained’.
Held: He did not habve the right to vote. A claim for untaxed costs was either unliquidated or ascertained.
Mellish LJ said: ‘The question really is, what is meant by an ‘unliquidated debt’ in the 3rd sub-section. The fair construction of the clause seems to me this: ‘a contingent debt’ refers to a case where there is a doubt if there will be any debt at all; ‘a debt, the value of which is not ascertained,’ means a debt the amount of which cannot be estimated until the happening of some future event; and ‘an unliquidated debt’ includes not only all cases of damages to be ascertained by a jury, but beyond that, extends to any debt where the creditor fairly admits that he cannot state the amount. In that case there must be some further inquiry before he can vote.’
Judges:
Mellish LJ
Citations:
(1872-2) LR 8 Ch App 997
Statutes:
Cited by:
Cited – McGuinness v Norwich and Peterborough Building Society CA 9-Nov-2011
The appellant had guaranteed his brother’s loan from the respondent, and the guarantee having been called in and unpaid, he had been made bankrupt. He now appealed saying that the guarantee debt, even though of a fixed amount could not form the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Insolvency
Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.450451