Winding up of subsidiary company to be ancillary

Board are of opinion that it is not such a statement or abstract as is required to be prepared by that Act.

4. Where the business or any part of the business of a life assurance company has, either before or after the passing of this Act, been transferred to another company to winding up under an arrangement in pursuance of which such first

of principal

company.

mentioned company (in this Act called the subsidiary company) or the creditors thereof has or have claims against the company to which such transfer was made (in this Act called the principal company), then, if such principal company is being wound up by or under the supervision of the court, either at or after the passing of this Act, the court shall (subject as herein-after mentioned) order the subsidiary company to be wound up in conjunction with the principal company, and may by the same or any subsequent order appoint the same person to be liquidator for the two companies, and make provision for such other matters as may seem to the court necessary, with a view to such companies being wound up as if they were one company; and the commencement of the winding up of the principal company shall, save as otherwise ordered by the court, be the commencement of the winding up of the subsidiary company; the court nevertheless shall have regard, in adjusting the rights and liabilities of the members of the several companies between themselves, to the constitution of such companies, and to the arrangements entered into between the said companies, in the same manner as the court has regard to the rights and liabilities of different classes of contributories in the case of the winding up of a single company, or as near thereto as circumstances admit.

Where any subsidiary company or company alleged to be subsidiary is not in process of being wound up at the same time as the principal company to which it is subsidiary, the court shall not direct such subsidiary company to be wound up unless after hearing all objections (if any) that may be urged by or on behalf of such company against its being wound up, the court is of opinion that such company is subsidiary to the principal company, and that the winding up of such company in conjunction with the principal company is just and equitable.

Where any subsidiary company and principal company are being wound up by different branches of the court, the court to which appeals from such branches lie shall make an order directing in which branch the winding up of such companies is to be carried on, and the necessary proceedings shall be taken for carrying such order into effect.

An application may be made in relation to the winding up of any subsidiary company in conjunction with a principal company by any creditor of, or person interested in, such principal or subsidiary company.

Where a company stands in the relation of a principal

company to one company, and in the relation of a subsidiary company to some other company, or where there are several companies standing in the relation of subsidiary companies to one principal company, the court may deal with any number of such companies together or in separate groups, as it thinks most expedient, upon the principles laid down in this section.

annuities and policies.

5. Where a life assurance company is being wound up Valuation of by the court, or subject to the supervision of the court, or voluntarily, the value of every life annuity and life policy requiring to be valued in such winding up shall be estimated in manner provided by the First Schedule to this Act, but this section shall not apply to any company the winding up of which has commenced before the passing of this Act, unless the court having cognizance of the winding up so order, which order that court is hereby empowered to make, if it think it expedient so to do, on the application of any person interested in the winding up of such

company.

and Second Schedules to

court.

6. The rules in the First and Second Schedules to this Rules in First Act shall be of the same force as if they were rules made in pursuance of the one hundred and seventieth, one hun- be rules of dred and seventy-first, and one hundred and seventy-third sections of "The Companies Act, 1862," as the case may be, and may be altered in manner provided by the said sections, and rules may be made under the said sections for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act with respect to the winding up of companies.

to novations

7. Where a company, either before or after the passing Regulation as of this Act, has transferred its business to or been amalga- by policy mated with another company, no policy holder in the first- holders. mentioned company who shall pay to the other company the premiums accruing due in respect of his policy shall by reason of any such payment made after the passing of this Act, or by reason of any other act done after the passing of this Act, be deemed to have abandoned any claim which he would have had against the first-mentioned company on due payment of premiums to such company, or to have accepted in lieu thereof the liability of the other company, unless such abandonment and acceptance have been signified by some writing signed by him or by his agent lawfully authorised.

8. This Act shall be construed as one with the Life Construction

Assurance Companies Acts, 1870 and 1871; and those and short title. Acts and this Act may be cited together as

66 The Life

Assurance Companies Acts, 1870 to 1872;" and this Act may be cited as "The Life Assurance Companies Act, 1872."

FIRST SCHEDULE.

Rule for valuing an Annuity.

An annuity shall be valued according to the tables used by the company which granted such annuity at the time of granting the same, and where such tables cannot be ascertained or adopted to the satisfaction of the court, then according to the table known as the Government Annuities Experience Table, interest being reckoned at the rate of four per centum per annum.

Rule for valuing a Policy.

The value of the policy is to be the difference between the present value of the reversion in the sum assured on the decease of the life, including any bonus or addition thereto made before the commencement of the winding up and the present value of the future annual premiums.

In calculating such present values the rate of interest is to be assumed as being four per centum per annum, and the rate of mortality as that of the tables known as the seventeen offices experience tables.

The premium to be calculated is to be such premium as according to the said rate of interest and rate of mortality is sufficient to provide for the risk incurred by the office in issuing the policy, exclusive of any addition thereto for office expenses and other charges.

SECOND SCHEDULE.

Where an assurance company is being wound up by the court or subject to the supervision of the court, the official liquidator in the case of all persons appearing by the books of the company to be entitled to or interested in policies granted by such company, for life assurance, endowment, annuity, or other payment, is to ascertain the value of such policies, and give notice of such value to such persons, and any person to whom notice is so given shall be bound by the value so ascertained unless he gives notice of his intention to dispute such value in manner and within a time to be prescribed by a rule or order of the court.

The following rules have been made by the Board of Trade for the purpose of carrying out the objects of the above Acts :

BOARD OF TRADE RULES.

The Board of Trade, in pursuance of the powers conferred upon them under the first section of "The Life Assurance Companies Act, 1872," have made the following rules with respect to the payment into the Court of Chancery, and repayment of the deposit required to be made by a life assurance company, in pursuance of the provisions of the Life Assurance Companies Acts, 1870 and 1871; the investment of the deposit in securities, the deposit of stocks or securities in

lieu of money, and the payment of the interest or dividends from time to time accruing due on any such stocks or securities.

1. In these rules the term "the court" means the High Court of Chancery in England, and the word "company" means a company as the same is defined in the second section of the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870.

2. Where any company is required in pursuance of "The Life Assurance Companies Acts, 1870 to 1872" to deposit the sum of twenty thousand pounds with the Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery, the said company, or the subscribers of the memorandum of association of the said company, or any of them, as the case may be, (in these rules referred to as the promoters) may make application to the Board of Trade for a warrant, and the Board of Trade may thereupon issue their warrant to the promoters for such payment into court, which warrant shall be a sufficient authority for the company or persons therein named to pay the money therein mentioned into the Bank of England, in the name and with the privity of the said Accountant-General, and for that officer to issue directions to such bank to receive the same, to be placed to his account there, ex parte the company mentioned in such warrant, according to the method (prescribed by statute or general rules or orders of court or otherwise,) for the time being in force respecting the payment of money into the said court, and without fee or reward.

Provided, that in lieu, wholly or in part, of the payment of money, the promoters may bring into court as a deposit an equivalent sum of bank annuities, or of any stocks, funds, or securities in which cash under the control of the court is for the time being permitted to be invested, or of Exchequer bills, (the value thereof being taken at the price at which the promoters originally purchased the same, as appearing by the broker's certificate of that purchase); and in that case the Board of Trade shall vary their warrant accordingly by directing the transfer or deposit of such amount of stocks, funds, securities, or Echequer bills by the persons therein named, into the name or to the account of the said Accountant-General in trust to attend the orders of the court ex parte the company mentioned in such warrant.

3. At any time when the office of the Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery is closed, a deposit under these rules may nevertheless be made, in the manner and subject to the regulations provided with respect to deposits by companies by section 88, of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845.

4. Where money is so paid into the Court of Chancery, the court may, on the application of the company or the persons named in the warrant of the Board of Trade, or of the majority or survivors of such persons, order that the same be invested in such stocks, funds or securities as the applicants desire and the court thinks fit.

5. In the subsequent provisions of these rules the term "the deposit fund" means the money deposited, or the stocks, funds, or securities in which the same is invested, or the bank annuities, stocks, funds, securities, or Exchequer bills transferred or deposited, as the case may be, and the term "the depositors" means the company or persons named in the warrant of the Board of Trade authorising the

deposit, or the majority or survivors of those persons, their executors, administrators, or assigns.

6. The court shall, on the application of the depositors, order the deposit fund to be paid, transferred, or delivered out to the applicants, or as they direct, so soon as it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that the life assurance fund of the company, in respect of which the deposit is made, accumulated out of premiums paid to the said company amounts to the sum of forty thousand pounds.

7. The depositors shall be entitled to receive payment of the interest or dividends from time to time accruing on or in respect of the deposit while in court. And the court may, from time to time, on the application of the depositors, make such order as may seem fit respecting the payment of the interest or dividends accordingly.

8. The issuing in any case of any warrant or certificate relating to deposit or to the deposit fund, or any error in any such warrant or certificate, or in relation thereto, shall not make the Board of Trade, or the person signing the warrant or certificate on their behalf, in any manner liable for or in respect of the deposit fund, or the interest or dividends accruing on the same, or any part thereof respectively.

9. Any application under these rules to the Court of Chancery shall be made in a summary way by petition.

Board of Trade,

28th August 1872.

W. R. MALCOLM.

HOME AND FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY-LIFE ASSURANCE BUSINESS IN 1870.

We have received from Herr Finanzrath G. Hopf of Gotha, whose recent death we notice with very great regret, a statement of the progress and position of Life Assurance Companies in Germany in the year 1870.

Since 1867, the date of our last notice of these Companies (vide Journal, vol. xv, p. 55), six Offices have been established; the total number being at present 41.

The new business effected in 1870 fell very far short of that done in the previous year. It amounted

In 1868 to £10,500,495 on 88,346 lives or policies,

This great decrease was, of course, caused by the war with France, which commenced in July 1870; but it is shown that in most of the Companies, particularly those which were principally affected by the war, the new business had steadily increased during the first half of