5
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13. No act of any liquidator appointed under the princi- Validity of pal Ordinance to wind up the trade or personal affairs of act of
liquidators. any person shall be deemed invalid by reason only of the fact that at the time when the act was done such person was not an alien enemy, or had died, or had ceased to exist
14. No legal proceeding of any kind whatsoever, civil Protection or criminal, shall without the permission of the Governor of liquidators he brought against any Bquidator or any public officer in officer.
and public respect of any act or omission connected in any manner whatsoever with any winding up under the Alien Enemies (Winding up) Ordinances, 1914 10 1916, whether such act or omission bave occurred before the coumencemeat of this Ordinance or may occur hereafter.
15. The powers conferred on the Governor by the Alien Duration of Enemies (Winding up) Ordinances, 1914 to 1916, and the powers of Governor rights and powers of the liquidators for the time being in and of office, sball coutinne not only during the continuance of liquidators. the present war but thereafter until such time as they may be revoked by Order of the Governor in Council, al Orders in Council may be male revoking all or any of those rights and powers either simultaneously as respects all the liquidations or at different times as respects dif- ferent liquidations or as respects different classes or items of property.
16. Section 18 of the Alien Enemies (Winding up) Repeal of Amendment Ordinance, 1914, is repealed.
Objects and Reasons.
The object of this bill is to deal with certain points which have arisen in the course of the izidations and with others which may arise hereafter,
Clause is formal.
Clause 2 has the effect of expressly including arbitrations among the proceedings which may not be begun without the permission of the Governor where the other party is an alien enemy or a liquidator.
Clause 3 makes the discretion of the Court to stay actions brought against liqtilators somewhat wider than at present.
Clane 4, read with clause 2, gives the Court power to stay an arbitration to which an alien enemy is a party, and it widens the discretion of the Court to stay proceed- ings generally brought against alien enemies.
With regard to the two clauses last referred to, it umst be pointed out that cases may conceivably arise in which jalice could not be done during the war owing to the impossibility of obtaining instructions or evidence or for some similar reason and it seems desirable that the decision of any such point should rest with a judicial tribunal and not with the executive. It is possible that the Court already has inherent jurisdiction in the matter.
Clause 5 is declaratory and has been drafted with reference to ruses which have actually occurred,
Clause 6 is intended to allay any possible doubts us to the powers of the liquidators to pass the legal estate,
Clanse 7 expressly provikles thur a liquidator's powers pass to his successors in office,
Clause 8 provides that liquidators shall be at liberty to distribute the assets in the first instance on the footing that no interest accrues on any debt after the commence- ment of the winding up. This provision has been borrowed from the law relating to bankruptcy. The clause does not take away the right of the creditor to interest, if his debt carries interest, and any surplus assets may be applied in payment of such interest. The rights of secured creditors ure saved,
Ordinance
No. 30 of
1914, .. 13.
Clanse 9 provides that unsecured debts payable to non- enemy creditors shall take priority over unsecured debts payable to creditors who are enemies. This clause is based on sub-section (3) nf section 1 of the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act, 1916.
Clause 10 introduces a power of disclaimer, modelled on the power of disclaimer in bankruptey. Any person injured by the disclaimer will be treated as a creditor of an alien enemy to the extent of such injury, and a right to obtain the decision of the Court on the xmonat of damage suffered is recognised.
Clause 11 provides machinery for compelling secured ereditors to realise their securities, Qu such realisation the secured creditor is to retain the amount to which he is entitled under the terms of the security and is to pay the balance to the liquidator. In case of dispute as to the amount to which the secured creditor is entitled the latter Las a right to a decision of the Court on the point. It is of course possible that in some cases, owing to contingent liabilities, it will not be possible at present to define exactly the amount to which the secured creditor is entitled, and in aneb cases it may be necessary that the total proceeds should continue to be held by the secured creditor, if the total liability, ascertained and contingent, exceeds the amount of the proceeds,
Clase 12 provides for the enforcement of orders mude by the Court on applications for directions.
Clause 13 provides that the validity of acts done by liquidators is not to be questioned on the ground that at the time when the act was done the person whose affairs are being wound up was not an alien enemy, or had died, or, in the case of a corporate body, had ceased to exist. A somewhat similar provision appears in section 9 of the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act, 1916.
Clause 14 provikles that no legal proceeding of any kind shall be brought against auy liquidator or public officer, except with the permission of the Goverus, in respect of any act or omission connected with any winding up under the Alien Enemies (Winding up) Ordinances.
Clause 15 provides for the continuance of the Governor's and the liquidators' powers for such period after the con. elusion of the war as may seem proper to the Governor in Council. The object of the clause is to provide an interval during which the whole position, both here and in other parts of the Empire and in enemy countries, may be coo- sidered before the liquidators' control of the estates comes to an end, and it may also be that on the conclusion of the war various questions as to the liabilities of firms which are being wound up will still be unsettled,
Clause 16 rapeals a section which will be rendered unnecessary by clause 18 of this bill,
J. H. KEMP,
Atturney General.
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