Notice of
Statutory
Meeting.

122

SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
Notices need not be sent to shareholders who are not within
reach [Union Hill Silver Co. (1870), 22 L.T. 400; Smyth v.
Darley (1849), 2 H.L.C. 789]. But it is doubtful whether mere
absence abroad would disentitle a member to receive notices
and the articles usually provide that a member living abroad
may supply an address within the United Kingdom at which
notices may be given to him and that if he does not do so,
he shall not be entitled to any notice of meetings. As an
alternative to depriving a member living abroad, who does
not supply an address in the United Kingdom, at which
notices may be served on him, the articles sometimes provide
for his being given notice by advertisement, or by posting up
a copy at the registered office of the company.

Where the company has issued share warrants to bearer,
the articles, or regulations made by the directors in pursuance
of the articles, may provide for notices being given to the
holders by advertisement, or, where they have furnished the
company with an address, for the sending of notices to that
address.

Sometimes non-members, e.g. debenture holders are given
the right of attending and voting at meetings in which case
notices should be sent to them. Their votes cannot, however,
be taken into account for the purpose of a special or extra-
ordinary resolution.

It is commonly provided that, in the case of shares registered
in joint names, only the person whose name stands first on
the register is entitled to notice.

Representatives of a deceased or bankrupt shareholder
are not entitled to receive notices until they have become
members by formal registration [Allen v. Gold Reefs of West
Africa (1900), 1 Ch. 656] unless the articles otherwise provide.

With reference to the statutory meeting, doubts have been
expressed whether all the members of the company are
necessarily entitled to notice of it, although they may not all
be entitled to notices of other general meetings. S. 113 (1)o0f
the Act provides for ‘a general meeting of the members of
the company which shall be called the statutory meeting.’
S. 113 (2) provides that the statutory report shall be sent ‘to
every member of the company.” If the notice of the statutory
meeting is, as is common, indorsed on the statutory report,
all the shareholders must necessarily receive it. But even
if it is not, it would be unsafe to assume that certain members
need not receive it. The words of s. 113 (I), ‘a general
meeting of the members of the company,’ differ from those of
s. 112 (1) (which makes provision for the annual general
meeting) ‘a general meeting of every company.” Although