Insolvency Amendment Act 27 of 1987

Insolvency Amendment Act, 1987 (No. 27 of 1987)

GENERAL EXPLANATORY NOTE:
[ ]  Words in bold type in square brackets indicate omissions from existing enactments.
__ Words underlined with solid line indicate insertions in existing enactments.

Act

• to amend the Insolvency Act, 1936, so as
  • to amend the definition of "disposition";
  • to emend the English text of section 34; and
  • to provide for the convening of a special meeting of creditors for the purpose of interrogating an insolvent; and
• to provide for matters connected therewith.

(English text signed by the State President.)
(Assented to 16 June 1987.)

BE IT ENACTED by the State President and the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:-

Amendment of section 2 of Act 24 of 1936, as amended by section 2 of Act 16 of 1943 and section 1 of Act 6 of 1972.

1. Section 2 of the Insolvency Act, 1936 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), is hereby amended by the substitution for the definition of "disposition" of the following definition:

"'disposition' means any transfer or abandonment of rights to property and includes a sale, lease, mortgage, pledge, delivery, payment, release, compromise, donation or any contract therefor, but does not include a disposition in compliance with an order of the court; and 'dispose' has a corresponding meaning;".

Amendment of section 34 of Act 24 of 1936, as amended by section 12 of Act 32 of 1952 and section 2 of Act 101 of 1983.

2. Section 34 of the principal Act is hereby amended-

(a) by the substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection:

"(1) If a trader [alienates] disposes of any business belonging to him, or the goodwill of such business or any goods or property forming part thereof (except in the ordinary course of that business), and such trader does not publish a notice of such intended [alienation] disposition in the Gazette, and in two issues of an Afrikaans and two issues of an English newspaper circulating in the district in which that business is carried on, within a period not less than thirty days and not more than sixty days before the date of such [alienation] disposition, the said [alienation] disposition shall be void as against his creditors for a period of six months after such [alienation] disposition, and shall be void against the trustee of his estate, if his estate is sequestrated at any time within the said period."; and

(b) by the substitution for subsection (3) of the following subsection: 

"(3) If any person who has any claim against the said trader in connection with the said business, has before such [alienation] disposition, for the purpose of enforcing his claim, instituted proceedings against the said trader-

(a) in any court of law,.and the person to whom the said business was [alienated] disposed of, knew at the time of the [alienation] disposition that those proceedings had been instituted; or 

(b) in a Division of the Supreme Court having jurisdiction in the district in which the said business is carried on or in the magistrate's court of that district,

the [alienation] disposition shall be void as against him for the purpose of such enforcement.".

Amendment of section 42 of Act 24 of 1936, as substituted by section 3 of Act 6 of 1972.

3. Section 42 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the addition of the following subsection, the existing section becoming subsection (1):

"(2) The trustee may at any time, and shall whenever he is thereto required by a creditor. who has proved his claim against the estate, provided that the Master consents thereto, convene by notice in the Gazette a special meeting of creditors for the purpose of interrogating an insolvent, and at such interrogation the provisions of section 65 shall mutatis mutandis apply.".

Short title.

4. This Act shall be called the Insolvency Amendment Act, 1987.

Commencement

24 June 1987