TITLE

Legal Notes

PUB. DATE

January 1965

SOURCE

Accountancy;Jan1965, Vol. 76 Issue 857, p37

SOURCE TYPE

Trade Publication

DOC. TYPE

Article

ABSTRACT

This article details two court cases in Great Britain which dealt with corporate law and executorship law and trusts. In Rights & Issues Investment Trust Ltd. versus Stylo Shoes Ltd., a minority shareholder of a class of shares with minor voting rights sought to prevent an increase in the voting rights of the management shares. The defendant company had a share capital consisting of 400,000 management shares of 5s. and 3,600,000 ordinary shares of 5s. Each management share carried eight votes, while an ordinary share had only one. As a result of negotiations to take over the capital of another company, it was proposed to issue 3,600,000 unissued ordinary shares, to create a further 4,800,000 new ordinary shares, to create a further 4,800,000 new ordinary shares and to double the votes of the management shares to sixteen per share. The result would be to leave the holders of the management shares with their percentage of the voting power of the company reduced from 47 to 45 percent. Meanwhile, In re Ward was a summons on the construction of a will. The testator had left a discretionary gift of income for the education and benefit of the children of his four named children during the lifetime of his widow, and thereafter had given the trust funds absolutely to those children of his who survived his widow. No age limit qualified his grandchildren to take under the terms of the will. The question for the court to decide was whether the class was closed at the date of the death of the testator, so that only the grandchildren alive at that date might benefit, or whether it was not closed, so that grandchildren born after that date might also benefit during the currency of the discretionary trust.

ACCESSION #

6655031

Tags: ACTIONS & defenses (Law);  CORPORATION law;  STOCKHOLDERS' pre-emptive rights;  EXECUTORS & administrators;  TRUSTS & trustees

 

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