§ MR. HERBERT LEWIS (Flint Boroughs)beg to ask the Attorney General whether the attention of the Government has been drawn to the recent case of a one-man company, practically consisting of a single individual, and formed by him to take over his own business, and through which he continued to trade for his own benefit under limited liability; and also to the Judgment of the House of Lords (reversing that of the Court of Appeal), in which it was 1611 held that debentures issued to himself by such individual were validly secured upon goods supplied to the company by ordinary trade creditors, which had not been paid for, and were entitled to take priority in the distribution of the company's assets arising from the sale of such goods over the claims of the creditors who had supplied them; and, whether, seeing that such cases are of frequent occurrence, the Government will take immediate steps to check the abuses thence arising?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir RICHAND WEBSTER,) Isle of WightI am fully alive to the necessity that exists for an amendment of the law in relation to trading companies. I would point out to the hon. Member that a Bill has already been introduced in the House of Lords by the Board of Trade and is now before the Standing Committee on Law, which will give an opportunity of dealing with the matter to which the question refers.
§ SIR W. HART DYKE (Kent, Dartford)Arising out of that answer, may I ask my hon. and learned Friend whether he is aware that under the Act passed last year, the Light Railways Act, one individual may become a light railway company? [Laughter.] I propose myself to start a railway on those lines, and I should like to know whether I am likely to be harshly dealt with? [Laughter].
§ THE ATTORNEY-GENERALI do not think there is much connection between the two subjects. The question of the hon. Member on the other side of the House refers to debentures issued for the purpose of raising money by these trading companies, which are really one-man companies.