BILLS OF SALE.

Kumara Times, Issue 844, 14 June 1879, Page 4

BILLS OF SALE.

An Act which came into operation in England on Jan. 1 effects most important changes. It repeals the Act of 1854, save that the old law is to apply to all bills of sale made previous to Jan. Jl. The terra " bill of sale; is made to include, io addition to those assignments of personal property which were within its meaning under the Act of 1854. "inventories of goods with receipt thereto attached, and receipts for purchase moneys of goods" where the goods remain in the possession of the seller, and also an agreement to give a bill of sale. " Personal chattels " has also a wider meaning than under the old law, as it includes fixtures and growing crops when separately assigned, and trade machinery when assigned together with an interest in land so is to require registration. Certain instruments giving powers of distress are also to be registered under the Act to be of any validity against the trustees in bankruptcy or execution creditors. Every bill of sale must be registered within seven days of its making, instead of within 21 days, as under the old law ; and provision is made to prevent the evasion of the Act by means of renewing bills of sale in respect of the same debt—a practice much resorted to up to this to avoid registration. In future a bill of sale executed within seven days after execution of a prior unregistered bill of sale, if comprising all or part of the same debt or any part thereof, will be absolutely void. To prevent necessitous persona,being invielged by sharpers into signing bills of sale for sums in excess of advances, or in blank, as was proved to have been done in some cases which came before the Courts, it will be necessary in future that every bill of sale shall be executed in the presence of a solicitor, who shall state in the attestation that before the execution of the bill of sale the effect thereof had been explained to the grantor by the attesting Bolioitor. Registration must be renewed every five years of unsatisfied bills of sale. Another important provision is that which enactß that chattels comprised in a duly registered bill of sale under the Act shall not be deemed to be in the possession order, or disposition of the grantor of the bill of sale within the meaning of the Bankruptcy Act, 1869. Bills of sale have of late been very much on the increase, doubtless owing to the depression, throughout the country, which affects the middle and lower clases. The new Act will probably add considerably to the number of registered bills of sale.