Consolidation Act 1908) further provides for the liquidator under a
voluntary winding-up summoning a meeting of creditors to determine on
the choice of a liquidator. A creditor may also in a proper case obtain
an order for continuing the voluntary winding-up under the supervision
of the court. Such an order has the advantage of operating as a stay of
any actions or executions pending against the company. Except in these
respects, the winding-up remains a voluntary one. The court does not
actively intervene unless set in motion; but it requires the liquidator
to bring his accounts into chambers every quarter, so that it may be
informed how the liquidation is proceeding. When the affairs of the
company are fully wound up, the liquidator calls a meeting, lays his
accounts before the shareholders, and the company is dissolved by
operation of law three months after the date of the meeting (C.A. 1862,
ss. 142, 143).
By the court.
Irrespective of voluntary winding-up, the legislature has defined
certain events in which a company formed under the Companies Act 1862
may be wound up by the court. These events are: (1) when the company has
passed a resolution requiring the company to be wound up by the court;
(2) when the company does not commence its business within a year or
suspends it for a year; (3) when the members are reduced to less than
seven; (4) when the company is unable to pay its debts, and (5) whenever
the court is of opinion that it is just and equitable that the company
should be wound up (C.A. 1862, s. 79; s. 129 of the Consolidation Act
1908). A petition for the purpose may be presented either by a creditor,
a contributory or the company itself. Where the petition is presented by
a creditor who cannot obtain payment of his debt, a winding-up order is
_ex debito justitiae_ as against the company or shareholders, but not as
against the wishes of a majority of creditors. A winding-up order is not
to be refused because the company's assets are over mortgaged (Companies