FAZULBHOY JAFFER Vs. CREDIT BANK OF INDIA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by a share-holder to be struck off the list of contributories on the ground that he was an infant at the time he applied for the shares and that therefore, his contract with the Company was void. The applicant may be considered to be in the same position as a shareholder whose name has been put upon the register either without his consent or without any application on his part. As soon as he becomes aware of the fact he may refuse to accept the ownership of the shares within a reasonable time but if he allows his name to remain on the register without doing any thing he must be taken to have acquiesced. In Ebbetts case (1870) 5 CH. App. 302 a minor made a similar application, and Giffard L.J. remarked; -I do not rely on the transfer which he executed, but on the ground that he acquiesced for a lengthened period in being on the register.

(2.) Again in Re Yeoland Consols Limited (1888) 58 L.T. 922 the applicant was put upon the register when a minor without any application on his part. On an application to remove his name from the list of contributories on the winding up Stirling J. said; -Being on the register of the Company for the shares he is prima facie entitled to them. Shares are property which may turn out to be valuable, and may on the other hand turn out to carry with them only a very serious liability. The law assumes that where property is assigned to a person the assignee accepts it, but he may refuse to accept it if he does so within a reasonable time." The present applicant knew he was on the register for the shares. From his coming of age in July or August 1913 a till the winding-up order was made in November 1913 he must be taken to have known that his name was on the register and since he chose to allow his name to remain there without doing anything it cannot now be removed.

(3.) There was an appeal.