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Proceedings in the Court of the vice warden of the Stannaries on proof of debts.
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108. If in the course of proving the debts and claims of creditors in the court of the vice warden of the Stannaries any debt or claim is disputed by the official liquidator or by any creditor or contributory, or appears to the court to be open to question, the court shall have power, subject to appeal as hereinafter provided, to adjudicate upon it; and for that purpose the said court shall have and exercise all needful powers of inquiry touching the same by affidavit or by oral examination of witnesses or of parties, whether voluntarily offering themselves for examination or summoned to attend by compulsory process of the court, or to produce documents before the court; and the court shall also have power, incidentally, to decide on the validity and extent of any lien or charge claimed by any creditor on any property of the company in respect of such debt, and to make declarations of right, binding on all persons interested; and for the more satisfactory determination of any question of fact or mixed question of law and fact arising on such inquiry, the vice warden shall have power, if he thinks fit, to direct and settle any action or issue to be tried either on the common law side of his court, or by a common or special jury, before the justices of assize in and for the counties of Cornwall or Devon, or at any sitting of one of the Superior Courts in London or Middlesex, which action or issue shall accordingly be tried in due course of law, and without other or further consent of parties; and the finding of the jury in such action or issue shall be conclusive of the facts found, unless the judge who tried it makes known to the vice warden that he was not satisfied with the finding, or unless it appears to the vice warden that, in consequence of miscarriage, accident, or the subsequent discovery of fresh material evidence, such finding ought not to be conclusive.
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