This section re-enacts the existing law which provides that if any bankrupt shall die after adjudication the Court may proceed as if such bankrupt were living. The Committee favour the retention of this provision which is embodied in section 137 of the 1857 Act. The effect of section 42 will be that if (1) a debtor dies he cannot then be adjudicated, but under the new provisions in Part V of the Bill creditors can petition to have the estates of deceased insolvents wound up in bankruptcy, and (2) if a debtor dies after adjudication the bankruptcy proceedings will continue as if he were alive.
SECTION 42.
Question proposed: "That section 42 stand part of the Bill."
Arising out of that and to clarify my own mind on what we are talking about — we are talking about a situation where someone dies, in effect bankruptcy proceedings are then brought against the executor or administrator of the estate?
Yes. A deceased's insolvent's estate can be wound up in bankruptcy.
If a person dies and an executor or administrator is appointed to his estate he would then have bankruptcy application made effectively against the estate. Would that be the position?
What we are talking about is if there is a subsisting bankruptcy and the bankrupt dies during it.
Then it applies to the executor?
The bankruptcy continues.
What about the situation where someone has died, there is an executor or an administrator appointed or those steps are taken? If he was alive he would have a bankruptcy situation, what is the position there? There are debts against the State obviously?
The position is dealt with under Part V of the Bill which deals with the estates of persons dying insolvent. As pointed out already, you have two situations. The effect of section 42 is that where you have a bankrupt dying after adjudication the bankruptcy proceedings will continue as if he were alive. In the case of Part V, which deals with the administration of estates of deceased insolvents, this is a completely new procedure where, as an alternative to having the estate of a deceased insolvent wound up as it is under the present law, it can be wound up in bankruptcy. We will come to that.
Question put and agreed to.