''British India Steam Navigation Co v Inland Revenue Commissioners'' (1881) 7 QBD 165 is a case relevant for

UK commercial law United Kingdom commercial law is the law which regulates the sale and purchase of goods and services, when doing business in the United Kingdom. History *Lex Mercatoria * Hanseatic league *Guild * Mercantilism * Freedom of contract *''Laissez fa ...

and UK insolvency law case, concerning the definition of a debenture.

Facts

The

British India Steam Navigation Company British India Steam Navigation Company ("BI") was formed in 1856 as the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company. History The ''Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company'' had been formed out of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co, a trading partn ...

had undertaken on paper to pay the holder £100 on 30 November 1882 and pay interest half yearly at 5% pa. The paper said these were “debentures”. Meanwhile, the Stamp Act 1870, a taxation statute, said that “debentures” were subject to a higher rate of stamp duty. The company then tried to argue that in fact these were not debentures at all, and merely a “

promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

”.

A. V. Dicey Albert Venn Dicey, (4 February 1835 – 7 April 1922), usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British Whiggism, Whig jurist and constitutional law, constitutional theorist. He is most widely known as the author of ''Introduction to the Study o ...

and Farrer Herschell QC appeared for the Revenue.

Judgment

Lindley J held that the instruments were debentures and therefore subject to stamp duty. They were debentures because they were documents that acknowledged a debt.(1881) 7 QBD 165, 172. See also L Sealy and S Worthington, ''Cases and Materials in Company Law'' (8th edn OUP 2008) 460

Notes

{{reflist

References

*L Sealy and S Worthington, ''Cases and Materials in Company Law'' (8th edn OUP 2008) 460 United Kingdom company case law United Kingdom insolvency case law United Kingdom taxation case law High Court of Justice cases 1881 in British law 1881 in case law