Insolvency Act, 1936 (Act No. 24 of 1936)

36. Goods not paid for which debtor purchased not on credit
Purchase cart Previous page Return to chapter overview Next page

 

(1)If a person, before the sequestration of his estate, by virtue of a contract of purchase and sale which provided for the payment of the purchase price upon delivery of the property in question to the purchaser, received any movable property without paying the purchase price in full, the seller may, after the sequestration of the purchaser's estate, reclaim that property if within ten days after delivery thereof he has given notice in writing to the purchaser or to the trustee of the purchaser's insolvent estate or to the Master, that he reclaims the property: Provided that if the trustee disputes the seller's right to reclaim the property, the seller shall not be entitled to reclaim it, unless he institutes, within fourteen days after having received notice that the trustee so disputes his right, legal proceedings to enforce his right.

 

(2)For the purposes of subsection (1) a contract of purchase and sale shall be deemed to provide for the payment of the purchase price upon delivery of the property in question to the purchaser, unless the seller has agreed that the purchase price or any part thereof shall not be claimable before or at the time of such delivery.

 

(3)The trustee of the purchaser's insolvent estate shall not be obliged to restore any property reclaimed by the seller in terms of subsection (1) unless the seller refunds to him every part of the purchase price which he has already received.

 

(4)Except as in this section provided, a seller shall not be entitled to recover any property which he sold and delivered to a purchaser whose estate was sequestrated after the sale, only by reason of the fact that the purchaser failed to pay the purchase price.

 

(5)The owner of the movable property which was in the possession or custody of a person at the time of the sequestration of that person's estate, shall not be entitled to recover that property if it has, in good faith, been sold as part of the said person's insolvent estate, unless the owner has, by notice in writing, given, before the sale, to the curator bonis if one has been appointed or to the trustee of the insolvent estate, or if there is no such curator bonis or trustee, to the Master, demanded a return of the property.

 

(6)if any such property has been sold as part of the insolvent estate, the former owner of that property may recover from the trustee, before the confirmation of any trustee's account in the estate in terms of section one hundred and twelve, the net proceeds of the sale of that property (unless he has recovered the property itself from the purchaser), and thereupon he shall lose any right which he may have had to recover the property itself in terms of subsection (5).