Section 103, The Bankruptcy Act, 2009

A receiving order shall not be made against any corporation,or against any association or company registered under the Companies Act, 2009. 104 (1) Any creditor of a deceased debtor whose debt would have been sufficient to support a bankruptcy petition against the debtor, had he been alive, may present to the court a petition in the prescribed form praying for an order for the administration in bankruptcy of the estate of the deceased debtor. (2) The petition shall be served on the legal or personal representative of the deceased debtor, or if there is none in Sierra Leone, on the Registrar-General, and the court may in the prescribed manner, (upon proof of the petitioner’s debts unless the court is satisfied that there is a reasonable probability that the estate will be sufficient for the payment of the debts owing by the deceased), make an order for the administration in bankruptcy of the deceased debtor’s estate or may upon cause shown dismiss the petition with or without costs. (3) Upon an order being made for the administration in bankruptcy of a deceased debtor’s estate, the property of the debtor shall vest in the official receiver as trustee and he shall forthwith proceed to realise and distribute it in accordance with this Act but- (a) the creditors shall have the same powers as to appointment of trustees and committees of inspection as they have in other cases where the estate of a debtor is being administered or dealt with in bankruptcy; and; (b) if no committee of inspection is appointed, any act or thing or any direction or permission which might have been done or given by a committee of inspection may be done or given by the court. (4) With the modifications mentioned in this section and, subject to any modification that may be made in it by subsection (9), sections 28 and 84 shall, so far as they are applicable, apply to the case of an administration order under this section in like manner as to an order of adjudication under this Act, and section 38 shall apply as if for the reference to an order of adjudication there were substituted a reference to an administration order under this section. (5) In the administration of the property of the deceased debtor under an order of administration, the official receiver or trustee shall have regard to any claim by the legal or personal representative of the deceased debtor to payment of the proper funeral and testamentary expenses incurred by him in and about the debtor’s Actions on joint contracts. Proceedings in partnerships. Disobedience to order of court. Exclusion of corporations and companies. Administration in bankruptcy of estate of person dying 68 69 Act No. 5 of 2009. estate, and such claims shall be deemed a preferential debt under the order and shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act relating to the priority of other debts, be payable in full out of the debtor’s estate in priority to all other debts. (6) If, on the administration of a deceased debtor’s estate any surplus remains in the hands of the official receiver or trustee after payment in full of all the debts due from the debtor together with the costs of the administration and interest as provided in this Act, it shall be paid over to the legal or personal representative of the deceased debtor’s estate, or failing that to the Administrator-General. (7) Service, on the legal or personal representative of a deceased debtor or on the Administrator-General, of a petition under this section shall, in the event of an order for administration being made thereon, be deemed to be equivalent to notice of an act of bankruptcy and after the service, no payment or transfer of property made by the legal or personal representative shall operate as a discharge to him as between himself and the official receiver or trustee; and unless otherwise provided in this Act, nothing in this section shall invalidate any payment made or any act or thing done in good faith by the legal or personal representative before the date of the order for administration. (8) A petition for the administration of the estate of a deceased debtor under this section may be presented by the legal or personal representative of the debtor or by the Administrator-General; and where a petition is so presented by a representative or by the Administrator-General, this section shall apply subject to such modifications as may be prescribed under subsection (9). (9) Any prescription for carrying this section into effect may be made in the same manner and to the like effect and extent as in General Rules