2 GENERAL STATEMENT OF BUSINESS. 3. General Statement of Business of the Registry. (A) Additions to and Removals from the Register. (2) Includes Societies cancelled for the purpose of conversion to Branches, Companies, &c. (3) Includes Branches removed from the Register on receipt of notice that they had ceased to exist or had seceded or been expelled from the parent Society. (4) Removed from Register by cancelling of registry following Transfer of Engagements. (5) The registered office of 1300T was removed to Scotland during the year. (6) There are also 22 unregistered Trade Unions in England and Wales and 3 in Scotland for which Political Fund Rules have been approved under the Trade Union Act, 1913, and 31 Unions in England and Wales which have been granted a certificate that they are Trade Unions within the meaning of the Trade Union Acts. GENERAL STATEMENT OF BUSINESS. (B) Principal documents registered, recorded, or certified. 3 The figures in these tables are inclusive of Collecting Societies, for which separate particulars are given in the Report of the Industrial Assurance Commissioner. H 28779 A 3 (C) Other documents registered, recorded, or certified, and miscellaneous matters. Certificates under Section 8 Industrial and Provident Societies (Amendment) Act, 1913 80 Returns of Final Winding-up Meeting 42 Certificates under Section 4 (1) of the Trade Union Act, 1913 - 1 5 Summonses issued 149 29 8 7 19 7 6250 61 2 Costs recovered on prosecution £320 Communications received 58,259 16,483 The Registrar has jurisdiction under the Savings Banks Acts and the Treasury Warrant of 12th December, 1924, to determine disputes between trustees and managers of a Trustee Savings Bank and depositors or their legal personal representatives, next of kin or assignees in bankruptcy or persons claiming to be such and also between such trustees and managers and any person claiming to be entitled to any deposit, and a similar authority in relation to Post Office Savings Bank deposits. The Chief Registrar has jurisdiction under the War Loan (Supplemental Provisions) Act, 1915, section 4, and the War Loan Act, 1918, section 2, to hear similar disputes as to War Stock and Bonds on the Post Office Register, under the War Savings Certificate Regulations, 1919, Reg. 69, to hear similar disputes as to War Savings Certificates, and under the Savings Banks Act, 1920, section 7, to hear similar disputes as to National Savings Certificates. It was decided in Bailey v. Bailey, [1926], 1 Ch. 758, that the Registrar has jurisdiction to hear disputes between rival claimants to a deposit and not merely disputes between a claimant and the savings bank. This case is set out more fully on p. 27 below. The disputes relating to Savings Banks, War Stock and Bonds and Savings Certificates which came before the Chief Registrar, and the Assistant Registrar for Scotland in 1926 were : The Chief Registrar's awards covered 11,3581. 10s. 10d. and 5,893 Savings Certificates, and those of the Assistant Registrar for Scotland 7,000l. 48. 3d., including the value of Savings Certificates awarded. The disputes involved, as usual, a great variety of claims, and reports of those which involved special points of law or are of general interest follow. (B) Selected Disputes. (1) POST OFFICE AND TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANKS. Administration. Claim by administrator that the Post Office Savings Bank had improperly paid the funeral expenses out of the deposits of the person whose estate he was administering. Isaac Chamberlain. Post Office Savings Bank. 225l. 8s. 8d. Hearing and Award, 2nd September. The depositor died on 23rd June, 1925. He was stated to have no relatives in this country, and on the application of Mrs. Holman, with A 4 whom he lodged, and on production of a statutory declaration by the undertaker, the Post Office Savings Bank paid the latter the funeral expenses, amounting to 251. 10s. 9d. Six guineas of this was attributable to the temporary preservation of the body. There seemed to the Chief Registrar no reason for suggesting that these expenses were unreasonably large, in view of the fact that the depositor had 2001. 5 per cent. War Stock in addition to the deposits. Subsequently Messrs. Bell, Brodrick & Gray became representatives of two of the next-of-kin, who lived in New Zealand, and on 2nd July, 1926, Mr. Cecil Brodrick took out letters of administration as their attorney. A long and somewhat acrid correspondence took place, both before and after the grant of administration, between the solicitors and the Post Office Savings Bank, the former seeking to know under what statutory authority the latter had acted, and the latter refraining from giving the direct answer that they had none. The Chief Registrar thought that the Post Office would have been better advised if they had frankly admitted that they had no such authority, at the same time pointing out that they had only done what the administrator himself must have done, if he had been there to do it, and had saved the depositor from a pauper's funeral. At the same time he derived from the correspondence the impression that the solicitors had been indulging in the popular sport of Government Department baiting a first-rate game, when the Departmental bull plays up properly to the picador. At the hearing the Post Office admitted that it had no statutory authority for what it had done. It only had such authority in the case of deposits not exceeding 100l. under Regulation 81 of the Post Office Savings Bank Regulations, 1921. It was admitted by the solicitors that no award could reasonably be asked for against the Post Office, except, perhaps, for the amount, if any, spent on the funeral which the Chief Registrar might hold to be excessive. The only question that remained, therefore, was one of costs incurred by the administrators, and this, after discussion, the solicitors were good enough not to press. It was therefore unnecessary to make an award. As a result of the case, it appeared to the Chief Registrar to be desirable that opportunity should be taken on a revision of the Regulations to insert some power to enable the Post Office, where it seemed to them necessary, to pay funeral expenses even where the estate exceeded 1001. Solicitors for the administrators: Bell, Brodrick & Gray. Deposit, Disputed. Ambiguous entry in deposit book-discrepancy between words and figures-subsequent correction by counter clerk-claim by depositor to have deposited the larger amount. Laura Dally. Post Office Savings Bank. 167. 10s. Hearing, 27th April; Award, 29th April. The Chief Registrar heard this case at Barry, and the following was his written judgment: The depositor claims to have deposited 167. 10s. at the Post Office, High Street, Barry, on 12th June, 1925. |