The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, DEC. 15, 1885. Proving in Bankrupt Estates

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 80, 15 December 1885, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, DEC. 15, 1885. Proving in Bankrupt Estates

A fashion has come into vogue of late among a number of creditors of intentionally neglecting to prove their claims in bankrupt estates. As a rule the reason assigned is that no dividend is likely to be got out of certain estates, and the possible results are therefore not worth the trouble. This may be all very well, and possibly correct enough, in a too large proportion of cases, but still there are occas- j sionally errors of judgment committed in this way which may afterwards cause the careless or indifferent creditor to sit on the stool of repentance, j and sadly mourn pounds, shillings, and pence gone — never to be regained. Some creditors hold the erronceous idea that they need not prove at all, or that a proof is only necessary at the last moment. It is only when they act on t£;is belief and in the eleventh hour cla&u on an estate where the trustee has a^rsady declared a dividend, that they discover their loss. What tends also to mislead creditors is that the Official Assignee advertises and sends a post card to every creditor, proved or not proved. Every fresh step taken by the Offijial Assignee has to be intimated to each creditor so that every one interested knows exactly the position any estate is in. In order to do justice to all parties, and assist in forming a bond of mutual protection, business people should prove in every estate, and not only that they should attend the meetings in person or by proxy. It is only after the Official Assignee has had the assistance of the creditors that the real assets of an estate can be discovered. Occasionally valuable assets in the shape of sections of land, horses and cattle running on the lands of friends, the ownership of which has— -no doubt by the purest inadvertence — been omitted from the statement are brought to light and utilized in swelling a welcome dividend, where the ideas of the unfortunate bankrupt did not rise above a modest fourpence in the pound. Of course this sort of thing thing is a dead loss to the bankrupt, but what is his loss is the creditors gain. «_—« — ■■• ■■ __ _