GEORGE SMITH v J W ROBERTON and W JEFFREY (Court of Session)

Upon the sequestration of the estates of Robert Fulton Alexander and Company, merchants in Glasgow, in 1811, the defender, Mr Roberton, was appointed trustee; and the other defender, Mr Jeffrey, accountant (who had formerly been employed to make up a report of the affairs of the Company while the estate was under trust) was again employed to examine the accounts, and to arrange matters connected with the estate.

On 7th June 1816, an intimation appeared in the Edinburgh Gazette, that a meeting of creditors was to be held on the 25th respecting a sale of the outstanding debts; and a similar notice was inserted in the London Gazette on the 15th of June. A meeting accordingly took place on the 25th, at which the trustee was directed by the creditors to advertise and sell the debts by public roup.

At the distance of five years thereafter, the pursuer, George Smith (as in right of his father, who was a creditor of the company, and who in 1815 had assigned his claim to a third party, from whom again Smith re-acquired it) brought an action of reduction of the sale, on the grounds—

st , That the statutory requisites of the bankrupt act, sect. 56, had not been observed. The meeting at which it was resolved to sell the debts had not been called in terms of the statute, sect. 56, nor were the prescribed notices given of the sale itself; and,

dly , That, at common law, Mr Jeffrey was disqualified from becoming a purchaser, from his connexion with the estate by means of his employment both under the trust and under the sequestration.