with the deceased. It is questioned whether a wife's funeral expenses are preferable over her husband's estate. Where the wife possessed separate funds, it was decided that the expense was not a privileged debt against the husband's estate. It is the opinion of the legal authorities in general that the expense of a sumptuous funeral is not privileged where the deceased is bankrupt, and that those who undertake one must look to the credit of their employers.a

2. Medical expenses connected with the deathbed illness, including the price of medicines and physician's fees.5

6

3. The current year's rent of the house in which the deceased has died; a privilege which, owing to the exercise of the landlord's hypothec (see above, p. 352), is not likely to be much made use of.

4. Servants' wages for the period current at the death or bankruptcy. The privilege has been held in general to apply only to farm and domestic servants, not to overseers, clerks, and working tradesmen.8 Where the duties of the individual were to take charge of a garden, to assist in sowing and reaping part of a field, and to drive a cart to the market-town with vegetables for the family, the court found the debt privileged in the special circumstances, without deciding whether a gardener's wages are within the privilege.9

5. Friendly Society.-The money of a friendly society established under the statutes, in the hands of an officebearer, is in the position of a privileged debt; the person administering the office-bearer's property as executor, trustee, &c., is bound, within forty days after demand in writing, to pay such money out of the debtor's effects "before any other of his debts are paid or satisfied;" and the effects continue bound for the payment. Such money is not properly a debt of the office-bearer, but property in his custody which may be taken out of it; and the statutory declaration, that the circumstance of its being mixed up with the debtor's own property will not alter the ownership, will undoubtedly make the claim of a society preferable to any other privilege.10

6. Ministers' Widows' Fund.-The rates made payable by the ministers' widows' fund act are declared by statute to

1 E. iii. 9, 43.- B. C. ii. 157.-3 Auchinleck v. Dinmuir's Executors, 19th February 1697, M. 11834. B. C. ii. 156.-5 E. iii. 9, 43.- Ibid.7 Ibid.-8 B. C. ii. 158. Maben v. Perkins, 3d June 1837.-9 M'Lean v. Shireffs, 21st January 1832. See the Law of Bankruptcy, &c. 3.-10 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 40, § 12.

be privileged debts," and preferable to all other debts of the said ministers, heads, principals, and masters, not only upon their benefices and salaries respectively, but also upon their whole personal estate.1

7. The Crown.-There is a preference in favour of the crown for arrears of assessed taxes. It only covers one year's duties, and, in relation to these, it affects all “moveable goods or effects whatever" of the debtor; and they remain liable though "taken by virtue of any arrestment, poinding, sequestration, or diligence whatever, or by virtue of any assignation on any account or pretence whatever."2

SECT. 2.-General Rules applicable to Securities.

Securities may be either Voluntary, where the debtor agrees to give his creditor that benefit, or Judicial, where the creditor, through execution for debt, has laid an embargo on the debtor's property. They are also divided into Heritable and Moveable, according to the nature of the property to which they apply. There are certain general rules applicable to every description of security.

In rankings at common law, and not under the sequestration statute, a creditor who holds any part of the debtor's property by any possessory right of security, such as lien or pledge, retains his security absolutely for what remains, though a portion of the debt be paid. A creditor who has obtained a collateral security for his debt, personal or real, retains it in the same manner absolutely for every portion of the debt.

Such a creditor, if he should fail to obtain full payment of his debt after exhausting his security, may, in a general ranking of creditors, rank for the full debt without deducting the payment received through the security, provided that on the whole he draw no more than twenty shillings in the pound. A person who holds separate securities of the above character, on distinct estates, for the same debt, may rank on each estate for the full debt secured on it, to the effect of drawing complete payment of his debt. The rule in these cases is, that a partial payment may diminish the debt but not the security, which is “ as broad for the last shilling as for the whole sum."* The rule of ranking under

19 Geo. III. c. 20, § 19.-2 43 Geo. III. c. 150, § 33. See the Ranking of Crown Debts examined, Law of Bankruptcy, &c. 6, 90.-* See the authorities for these principles set forth in the author's Law of Bankruptcy, &c. p. 52-57.

the sequestration act, which will have to be considered further on, *is different.

Double Security-Catholic Creditor.-Where a debt is twice secured on the same estate, the ranking on the second security is only for the balance not paid from the former; but where one debt is secured on different estates, the creditor ranks to the full extent of his debt on each, to the extent of obtaining full payment. Where there are several securities covering greater and smaller portions of the property, the manner in which the more extensive right is given effect to may have a considerable influence on the availability of the more restricted rights. Thus, there may be a security over two estates, and a posterior security in the hands of another creditor over one of them: in such a case it is ruled that the holder of the double security is not capriciously to rank on the estate covered by the secondary creditor's security, to his prejudice, but must first rank on the other estate, or at least assign his security over it.2 On a similar principle, were there a restricted creditor on each estate, the holder of the double security would not be entitled to spare the one to the prejudice of the other.3

SECT. 3.-Order of Securities on the Moveable Estate.

Of those debts which are preferable by reason of their securities, and over the subjects secured, the principal in moveables is the crown's debt secured by Writ of Extent, which covers the whole of the moveable property not affected by other real securities. The crown has by statute other securities over commodities for the duties payable on them: Excise duties are secured over "All goods and commodities for or in respect of which any duty of excise is or shall by law be imposed, and all materials and preparations from which any such goods are made, and all stills, backs, vats, coppers, cisterns, tables, presses, machines and machinery, vessels, utensils, implements, and articles for making or manufacturing or producing any such goods or commodities, or preparing any materials, or by which the trade or business, in respect of which the duty is or shall be imposed, shall have been or shall be carried When goods are landed in docks under the warehousing act, they continue subject to the lien for freight, and

on." 4

See p. 382, et seq.-B. C. ii. 522.- Kemp's Trustees v. Ure, 15th January 1822. See Moray v. Mansfield, 4th June 1836.-3 B. C. ii. 524.- 4 & 5 Vict. c. 20, § 24.

the directors or proprietors of the docks are bound, on receiving notice, to hold them for the benefit of the party to whom freight is due until he is paid, or the amount claimed deposited.1

Farther special information as to securities over moveables will be found under these heads,-Arrestment,* Poinding,+ Lien, Pledge,§ Hypothec,|| and the various rights over ship, freight, and cargo, by the navigation laws.¶

All Arrestments and Poindings** used within sixty days before, or within four calendar months after the notour bankruptcy of the debtor, rank on a par.2 If the first or any

other arrester have in the mean time obtained a decree of Forthcoming, by which he has recovered payment, he is bound to communicate their proportions of the fund raised to those who have an equal preference with him in terms of the act, "after allowing out of the fund the expense of making it effectual." Arrestments after the four months do not compete with prior ones, but rank among each other according to their priority. In the case of a poinding, "every other creditor of the bankrupt having liquidated grounds of debt, or decrees for payment, and summoning such poinder, or judicially producing the same in any process or competition relative to the goods or price thereof, before the said four months are elapsed, shall be entitled to a proportional share of the price of the goods so poinded effeiring to his debt, deducting always the expense of such poinding." Poindings after the lapse of the four months rank according to their priority.4

SECT. 4.-Order of Securities on the Heritable Estate.

Competing Heritable Securities.-The first in order among the securities over the heritable estate is the superior's right to feu-duties; ++ the next, burdens by reservation; ‡‡ the next, securities whether voluntary (such as heritable bonds), §§ or judicial (such as adjudications), on which infeftment has been taken, in the order of the recording of the sasines.5¶¶ All adjudications within year and day of the first effectual adjudication are on a level. This rule has created some

18 & 9 Vict. c. 91, § 51.-* See below, Part XIV. Chap. VI. Sect. 5.— + Ibid. § 1.- See above, p. 346.- § See above, p. 345.—|| See above, p. 351. - See above, p. 269, et seq. ** See below, Part XIV. Chap. VI.-254 Geo. III. c. 137, §§ 2, 5.— Ibid. § 2.- Ibid. § 5.-++ See above, p. 52. -‡‡ See above, p. 343.-§§ See above, p. 339.- See Part XIV. Chap. VII. B. C. ii. 508.-TT See above, p. 55.

difficulty, because a voluntary security, such as an heritable bond, may intervene between two such adjudications, which ought not to affect the first adjudication, and should not itself be affected by the second. The method of ranking laid down by the authorities in such a case is this: The prior adjudger to be ranked first, the holder of the voluntary security second, and the posterior adjudger third, thus putting the holder of the voluntary security in the situation in which he would have been had he been followed by no second adjudger. The adjudgers are then to be put upon a par according to the statute, by the second adjudger obtaining from the other the difference between what that other has drawn by being ranked first, and what he would have drawn had both been ranked together, and had there been no intervening voluntary security. By this method it will be observed that in the simple case supposed, if the voluntary security is equal to or exceeds the amount first adjudged for, the first adjudger will not have to communicate any part of the sum he ranks for to the second, as it is no more than what he would have received ranking on a par with the second, had the voluntary security been out of the field; and that, if in such circumstances there is no surplus after paying the first adjudger and the holder of the security, the second adjudger will get nothing. It sometimes happens that where there is more than one adjudger, and a holder of a voluntary security, one of the adjudgers may have recorded inhibition* previous to the date of the voluntary security. The inhibition strikes at the voluntary security, but not at an adjudication for debt contracted before the date of the inhibition. If the inhibiter were ranked first, the holder of the voluntary security second, and the simple adjudger last, the effect would be that the inhibition, instead of striking at the voluntary security, would affect the adjudging creditor. The method adopted has been, in the first place, to rank the several parties as if there were no inhibition, and then to give the inhibiting adjudger a right to draw from the holder of the voluntary security so much as will make up the sum which he would have drawn had that security not existed. An inhibition does not annul a voluntary security or any other deed, but merely excludes its effect in so far as it may prejudice the inhibitor's right; consequently, where there had been more than one voluntary

1 E. ii. 12, 32. B. C. ii. 510.-* See Part XIV. Chap. VII.-2 B. C. ii.

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