CO129-180 - Public Offices & Others - 1877 — Page 37

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for the information of the Secretary of tak for the Colonies.

I am

Your obedient Servant

Menne

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Judgment of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on the Appeal of Charles Fictor Benecke and others v. The Hon. James Whittall and another, from the Supreme Court of Hong Kong; delivered June 29th, 1877,

Present:

SIR JAMES W, COLVILE.

SIR BARNES PEACOCK.

SIR MONTAGUE E, SMITH.

SIR ROBERT P. COLLIER.

THIS is an action brought by trustees ap- pointed under the provisions of a deed of the 19th of April 1865, executed by the firm of Augustus Heard and Company, carrying on business in Hong Kong, as well as in other places. The Plaintiffs sue for the purpose of setting aside certain conveyances of real property to the Defendants, merchants in London, on the ground that they were given by way of frandu- lent preference,

The first question raised by the Defendants, Appellants, is whether the Plaintiffs have the right to maintain a suit on this ground; and inasmuch as this question, if disposed of in favour of the Appellants, decides the case, their Lordships have thought it desirable to hear the argument upon it in the first instance.

This question depends upon the construction of an ordinance of Hong Kong in 1864 on the subject of bankruptcy, which was passed three years after the well known Bankruptcy Act in this country of 1861, and in a great measure, indeed in a great number of clauses almost totidem verbis, follows that enactment.

42517. 100-7/77. Wt. 3458.

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