Bankruptcy Act, 1988

Preferential payments.

(1889, ss. 4,6; 33/1963, s. 285)

81.—(1) In the distribution of the property of a bankrupt there shall be paid in priority to all other debts—

(a) all local rates due from the bankrupt at the date of the order of adjudication, and having become due and payable within twelve months next before that date, and all property or income tax assessed on the bankrupt up to the 5th day of April next before the date of the order of adjudication, and not exceeding in the whole one year's assessment;

(b) all wages or salary (whether or not earned wholly or in part by way of commission) of any clerk or servant in respect of services rendered to the bankrupt during the four months next before the date of the order of adjudication not exceeding £2,500;

(c) all wages not exceeding £2,500 of any labourer or workman (whether payable for time or for piece work) in respect of services rendered to the bankrupt during the four months next before the date of the order of adjudication: provided that, where any farm labourer has entered into a contract for the payment of a portion of his wages in a lump sum at the end of the year or other shorter term of hiring, the priority under this section shall extend to the whole of such sum, or a part thereof, as the Court may decide to be due under the contract proportionate to the time of service up to the date of the order of adjudication;

(d) all accrued holiday remuneration becoming payable to any clerk, servant, workman or labourer (or in the case of his death to any other person in his right) on the termination of his employment before or by the effect of the adjudication order;

(e) all sums due to any employee pursuant to any scheme or arrangement for the provision of payments to the employee while he is absent from employment owing to ill health;

(f) any payments due by the bankrupt pursuant to any scheme or arrangement for the provision of superannuation benefits to or in respect of employees of the bankrupt whether such payments are due in respect of the bankrupt's contribution to that scheme or under that arrangement or in respect of such contributions payable by the employees to the bankrupt under any such scheme or arrangement which have been deducted from the wages or salaries of employees;

(g) any debt, payment or contribution which by virtue of any provision in any enactment in operation before the commencement of this Act was included in the debts to which section 4 of the Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy (Ireland) Act, 1889, gave priority; and any reference to the said section 4 in any such enactment shall be construed as a reference to this subsection.

(2) The foregoing debts shall rank equally between themselves and be paid in full unless the property of the bankrupt is insufficient to meet them, in which case they shall abate in equal proportions between themselves.

(3) Subject to the retention of such sums as may be necessary for the costs and expenses of administration or otherwise, the foregoing debts shall be discharged forthwith so far as the property of the bankrupt is sufficient to meet them.

(4) In the event of a landlord or other person distraining or having distrained on any goods or effects of the bankrupt within three months next before the date of the order of adjudication, the debts to which priority is given by this section shall be a first charge on the goods or effects so distrained on, or the proceeds of sale thereof; provided that in respect of any money paid under any such charge the landlord or other person shall have the same rights of priority as the person to whom the payment is made.

(5) Any remuneration in respect of a period of holiday or absence from work through good cause shall be deemed to be wages in respect of services rendered to the bankrupt during that period.

(6) Notwithstanding section 4 , this section shall not apply where the order of adjudication was made before the commencement of this Act, and in such a case, the provisions relating to preferential payments which would have applied if this Act had not been passed shall be deemed to remain in full force.

(7) Subsections (1), (2), (3), (5) and (6) shall apply in the case of an arranging debtor under the provisions of this Act as if he were a bankrupt, and as if the date of the filing of the petition for arrangement were substituted for the date of the order of adjudication.

(8) Any creditor who, in the case of an arrangement, votes in respect of any debt to which priority is given by this section for or against the acceptance of the debtor's proposal or any modification thereof or, in the case of a composition after bankruptcy, votes in respect of any such debt for or against the acceptance of the bankrupt's offer of composition or any modification thereof shall by so voting be deemed to have abandoned any rights under subsection (1) and shall be remitted to such rights (if any) in respect of any of the debts therein mentioned as such creditor would have had apart from that subsection.

(9) This section shall apply in the case of a deceased person who dies insolvent as if he were a bankrupt and as if the date of his death were substituted for the date of the order of adjudication.

(10) Nothing in this section shall alter the effect of section 3 of the Partnership Act, 1890 , or shall prejudice the provisions of section 14 of the Trustee Savings Banks Act, 1863, or the provisions of the Friendly Societies Act, 1896 .