Evidence
of Death.
Company
Executor.
]8
SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
registration of executors; they may not desire, where the
shares are not fully paid, to accept the liability of the
executors, who may be men of straw, in lieu of the liability
of the estate of the deceased, and may prefer to await a
substantial transferee. When an executor is, upon a proper
request, entered on the register, a fresh certificate should be
issued, and the request should be recorded as a transfer.
Where an executor or administrator is also beneficially
entitled to shares he can, upon a proper request, be placed
on the register without any transfer being executed.
A form of request by executors, or administrators, to
be placed on the register, will be found in Appendix F
‘Form 25).
As regards the evidence which should be demanded on
death, in the case of the death of a holder in sole account,
the production of probate or letters of administration or
confirmation as executor should be required; whilst in the
case of the death of one holder in joint account, a certificate
of death is usually sufficient. A Form of Certificate of
Identity, where one is required, will also be found (Form 26).
Under s. 69, any document which is by law sufficient evidence
of probate or letters of administration or confirmation as
executor must be accepted by the company as sufficient
evidence of the grant.
Upon the death of a holder in joint account, the shares
vest, by right of survivorship, in the survivor or survivors.
A company is sometimes appointed executor. In such a
case, unless it is a trust corporation, it must appoint under
its seal a representative, called a syndic, to whom letters of
administration with the will annexed will be granted, and
these will be produced to the company in which the deceased
held shares. In the case of a company being appointed co-
executor with individuals, no grant can be made to the
syndic unless the individuals have renounced probate, since
probate and letters of administration cannot be granted in
respect of the same estate. If, however, the company is a
trust corporation as defined by the Supreme Court of Judica-
ture (Consolidation) Act, 1925 (s. 175) probate will be granted
that company in its corporate name pursuant to s. 161 of
that Act.
In cases where executors are to be noted in the register
in their representative capacity, probate should be exhibited,
and the register of probates should give the names and
addresses of the executors. The common practice of
making a note in the register of members that probate has
been exhibited, and giving the names of the executors, to