A claim must be proved at a meeting of creditors to the satisfaction of the officer presiding at such meeting1, who must either admit or reject such claim.2 Proof is by way of an affidavit in a form corresponding substantially with Forms C or D3 in the First Schedule to the Act.4 The affidavit may be made by the creditor or by any person fully cognisant of the claim.
The Act provides, with regard to the contents of the affidavit, that the deponent "shall set forth . . . the facts upon which his knowledge of the claim is based and the nature and particulars of the claim, whether it was acquired by cession after the institution of the proceedings by which the estate was sequestrated, and if the creditor holds security therefor, the nature and particulars of that security and in the case of security other than movable property which he has realised in terms of section eighty-three, the amount at which he values the security."
Section 44(4) of the Act further provides that the affidavit or a copy thereof and any documents submitted in support of the claim must be delivered at the office of the officer who is to preside at the meeting of creditors not later than 24 hours before the advertised time of the meeting at which the creditor concerned intends to prove the claim, failing which the claim cannot be proved unless the presiding officer is of the opinion that the creditor was unable through no fault of his own to make timeous delivery.
Any document delivered for the purpose of proving a claim is open for inspection 24 hours before commencement of the meeting, free of charge at the office of the presiding officer during office hours by any creditor, the trustee or the insolvent or the representative of any of them.8 It must be noted that a claim for the price of goods sold and delivered to the insolvent on an open account cannot be admitted to proof unless supported by a statement showing the monthly total and a brief description of the purchases and payments for the full period of trading or for the period of twelve months immediately prior to sequestration, whichever is the lesser.9 Provision is made for interrogation on oath of any person, with regard to a claim which he seeks to prove or a claim which he has already proved.
Failure to submit to interrogation or to answer lawful questions satisfactorily may result in the rejection of unproved claims or the expungement of proved claims.11 The trustee is obliged to examine all proved claims by way of an independent inquiry and claims disputed by the trustee may be reduced or disallowed by the Master. Reduction or disallowance does not debar the claimant from establishing his claim by action at law, subject to the provisions of section 75 of the Act.
The creditor may include arrear interest up to the date of sequestration in the case of an interest-bearing debt in terms of section 50(1) of the Act. Where an interest-bearing debt incurred before sequestration becomes payable after sequestration, the creditor may claim the full amount of the debt as if it were payable on the date of sequestration. Where it appears from the claim document that the debt is prescribed, the presiding officer should only allow the claim if supplementary proof that the claim has not become prescribed is provided.
When the estate of a partnership and the estates of the individual partners in that partnership are under sequestration simultaneously, the creditors of the partnership must prove their claims against the estate of the partnership and the creditor of an individual partner against the estate of that partner. The administration of each estate must be kept entirely separate from each other.
The trustee of the partnership will be entitled to any balance of a partner's estate that may remain after satisfying the claims of the individual partner's creditors insofar as the balance is required to pay the debts of the partnership. Likewise, the trustee of an insolvent partner will be entitled to any remaining balance in the estate of the insolvent partnership insofar as that partner may be entitled thereto, if his estate had not been sequestrated.
