Chitty pronounced tke judgment which the telegram we publish to-dey informs na has been reversed by the Court of Apponl. The action was brought by the Official Liquidator of the Oriental Bank against two persons named Clayton and Hartns, to make them liable in respect of shares in the Bank which they lad transferred before the liquidation began, A clause in the Charter of the Bank was to the effect that in all cases in which shares in the Corporation wore transferred, the responsibil the original holder should continue for six calendar months after the date of the transfer, The Official Liquidator contended that "original holder" meant any transferrer, and also that the date of transfer meant the date of registration of the transferred shares. The defen-dauts in the action contended that original holders only meant those to; whom the shares in the stock of the Bank bad been originally allotted. Me, Justice Chitty held that the words original bolder wust be construed in their strict sense, and meant the first takers of the shares, and that the provision in the charter did not apply to subsequent transferrers, It appears from the short report of the ease in the London and China Hupress, that Me. Justice Chitty held that not only was the grammatical menuing of the words in question quite plain, but that the words were the best which could be found to express the first takers of thoshares. The Charter of the Bank, so far from containing any context which would control the meaning of the words, actually contained a context which tended to show that they were used as meaning a first taker or allottee, In fact, the words that could most appropriately express the first taker has been used. This is the clause in the Charter—" And fur= ther that in all onses in which shares of the Corporation stock are trausforred the responsibility of the original holder of the transferred shares shall continue for six calendar mouths after the date of the transfer." The effect of the reversal of the judgement of Mr, Justice Chitty should be to improve to some extent the position of the general creditors of the Bank. Of course we know nothing of the two parties to the suit brought by the Ofcial Liquidator, or of the circumstances under which they sold their shares before the liquidation began. The whole transaction may lave been perfectly straightforward, but it has been found before that many wealthy and solvent shareholders in Banks, and other oom-panies which were in a daugerods condition, did transfer their shares to people not 80 well able to pay calls as they wore, and not unfrequently to men of Straw; gentlemen whose addresses it was difficult for liquidators to ascertain. Very probably n good deal of that sort of Linusfers were effected shortly before the Oriental stopped payment, and the fixing of the liability ow their shares on all who held stock within six months of the suspension will be likely to increase the amount paid ander the calls, It has, we think, always been understood that transferrers of shares in joint stock banks, not registered ander special Acts of Pacliameut, did remain under a Jiabil regard to thole shares for some time after they had completed the transfer, and the decision of the Court of Appeal is i conformity with that view.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.