CHATTELS PARTITION, AND SALE. (Hansard, 4 April 1849)

§ MR. ROUNDELL PALMER

moved for leave to bring in a Bill to authorise, in certain cases, the partition or sale of chattels personal held in joint tenancy or tenancy in common. The hon. and learned Gentleman briefly explained that the object of his Bill was to afford a more effectual remedy than the law at present allowed to a minority of the part owners of a ship, when a disagreement arose between them and the majority as to the employment of that ship. The law, as it at present stood, empowered a majority of the part owners of a ship to employ that ship against the will of the minority; and the minority had no remedy except going to the Admiralty Court and there calling upon the majority to give security, not for any portion of the profits of the voyage, but against any loss that might arise from the particular mode of employing the ship. But even that inadequate remedy could not be obtained by the minority, except under a renunciation of all share in the profits that might accrue from the voyage. If the minority did not avail themselves of the course thus open to them, they would be liable to share in the risk of the loss of the ship, and of the expenses incurred in sending her out, although it was done contrary to their own wishes. He had consulted with several parties connected with the shipping interest at Liverpool, and with many commercial persons in London, as to the remedy to be applied to this case, and he had obtained their approval of the simple remedy which he now wished to embody in the Bill he was desirous of introducing. What he proposed was, to enable the parties who were in the situation he had described to apply to the Court of Chancery in a summary manner by petition for a sale of the joint interest in the ship about the use of which they could not agree, and he proposed to extend that power generally to all chattels personal held in joint tenancy or tenancy in common.