308

SECRETARIAL PRACTICE

Survivorship
in Joint
Accounts.

Where it is intended to register shares or stock of a
Scottish company in the names of two or more persons with
a destination to the survivor, words to that effect must ordin-
arily be inserted in the transfer, as survivorship is not implied
under Scots law. The words necessary are ‘and the Survivor
of them,” or ‘and the Survivors or Survivor of them’ placed
after the words ‘do hereby bargain, sell, assign, and transfer
to the said A4.B.,” although some companies pass transfers
with the words written immediately after the names and
addresses of the buyers. Failing the inclusion in a transfer
in favour of, say, 4. and B. of the clause referred to, and in the
absence of any special provision to the contrary in the com-
pany’s articles of association, they would be held to have an
equal and separate interest in the shares or stock, and, on the
death of one of them, his confirmation or probate would re-
quire to be exhibited and his executors’ names would be noted
in the register in respect of his share, and, in the event of a
sale, the transfer would require to be executed by the survivor
and by the executors of the deceased. Of course, where the
survivorship clause is registered, and one of the holders dies,
production of evidence of death is all that is necessary to
enable a company to remove his name. In any subsequent
transfer by the survivor he should be described as ‘Survivor
in a joint account with deceased.” There is,
however, a growing practice in the case of Scottish companies
to make special provision in the articles of association that
where shares are registered in joint names without qualifica-
tion the survivors or survivor are alone to be recognised as
holding the title following upon a death, thereby bringing the
practice more into line with that prevailing in England.

It may be mentioned here that shares or stock of Scottish
companies may also be registered in joint names so that a
quorum only of the holders require to sign. This method of
registration has been adopted by the nominees of some of
the banks in Scotland who are described in transfers as, say,
‘A.B., C.D., and E.F., all of the Bank, Limited,
Glasgow, and the survivors or survivor of them, any two
being a quorum.’

It should be noted that although under the law of Scotland
partnerships may own property and may quite competently
be registered as stock or share holders and act as transferors
or transferees thereof, there are obvious objections to register-
ing a firm as such, and the practice should be discouraged.

Execution by The execution of a deed by a mark is not valid in Scotland.
Mark. The deed must be executed for the person unable to write
by a Justice of the Peace or Notary Public in the presence

Partnerships.