OTHER MATTERS RELATING TO SHARES 107
member to the dividends declared on his shares. Prior to the
1st January, 1926, the Chancery Division of the High Court
could make an order for the payment of dividends due to an
infant to the guardian of such infant, or any person named in
the order under s. 32 of the Infants’ Property Act, 1830.
This Act was repealed by the Law of Property Amendment
Act, 1924; but it is apprehended that the Court could still
make such an order under its general jurisdiction. In the
absence of such an order the company may be in a difficulty
as an unmarried infant cannot give a good discharge for the
dividends though a married infant could do so under s. 21
of the Law of Property Act, 1925. The company cannot rely
upon the disability of an infant to give a legal discharge
as a defence to an action brought by an infant suing by his
next friend. The debtor must find a person able to give a
discharge (Simpson on Infants, 4th edition, p. 41). If such an
action were brought to recover dividends on an infant’s shares
the company might pay the amount of the dividend into
Court, and so get a good discharge for it, [Law of Property Act,
1925, s. 203 (1)], but it would seem that they would have to
pay the plaintiff’s costs of the action up to the payment in.
The difficulty is, however, unlikely to arise as shares are
usually vested in trustees for infants, and if an infant becomes
entitled to shares under a will or on an intestacy and they
are not vested in trustees by the will (if any), the legal personal
representatives of the deceased can appoint trustees under
s. 42 of the Administration of Estates Act, 1925. Provision
is made by the rules of Court for all money recovered in an
action by an infant to be paid into Court or otherwise dealt
with as the Court shall direct. See Order 22 R. 15.

It may be added that a dividend warrant in the ordinary
form is a bill of exchange payable to the order of the share-
holder named in it (Thairlwall v. Great Northern Railway Co
(1910), 2 K.B. 509), and his signature of it, or indorsement of it,
therefore entitles the holder to receive and enforce payment
of the warrant notwithstanding that the indorser is an infant
[Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, s. 22 (2)], though he incurs no
liability by indorsing it. An infant may have a current
account with a banker, but not an overdraft.

Upon the whole, if dividend warrants in the usual form are
made payable to the shareholder’s order and crossed, it is
difficult to see what risk the company could run in the matter.

Under s. 7 of the Gasworks Clauses Act, 1871, the guardian
of an infant shareholder in a gas company can give a sufficient
discharge for money payable to the infant. Whether a