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Accountable - Law Dictionary Search Results

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Account or Accompt

Account or Accompt [fr. compte, Fr., computo, Lat.], a registry of debts, credits, and charges, or a detailed statement of a series of receipts (credits) and disbursements (debits) of money-which have taken place between two or more persons. Accounts are either-(1) open, where the balance is not struck, or it is not accepted by all the parties; (2) stated, where it has been expressly or impliedly acknowledged to be correct by all the parties; and (3) settled, where it has been accepted and discharged. Stated and settled accounts may be investigated and reopened by the Court on the ground of fraud or fiduciary relationships. See SURCHARGE and FALSIFY.Companies under the Companies Act, 1929, must keep proper books of account, and present to the company in general meeting not less than 18 months after incorporation and subsequently at least once in every year a profit and loss account and balance sheet, to copies of which shareholders of all companies, except private companies, are entitl...


Account stated

Account stated, An account stated is the admission of a balance due from one party to another, and that balance being due there is a debt; the statement of the account and the admission of the balance implies a promise in law to pay it; see Irving v. Veitch, (1837) 3 M&W 106. The account must have been stated before action brought. An account stated, however, creates only a prima facie liability, which may be rebutted by disputing the debts charged in the account, as, for instance, by proving mistake (among other ordinary defences); Camillo Tank Steamship Co. v. Alexandria Engineering Works, (1921) 38 TLR 134. For statutory power to re-open an account stated, see MONEY LENDERS ACT. By the Infants Relief Act, 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. 62), s. 1, an account stated with an infant is void.The expression 'account stated' has more than one meaning. It sometimes means a claim to payment made by one party and admitted by the other to be correct. There is, however, a second kind of account stated ...


Accountant or Accomptant

Accountant or Accomptant, one whose business it is to compute, adjust, and range in due order accounts; also to audit accounts. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales was incorporated by Royal Charter, May 11th, 1880. No person is entitled to describe himself as a chartered accountant unless he is a member of an Institute of Accountants incorporated in the United Kingdom by Royal Charter; see Society of Accountants in Edinburgh v. Corporation of Accountants Ltd. (1893) 20 R 750; Society of Accountants and Auditors v. Goodway, (1907) 1 Ch 489....


Book of account

Book of account, It involves either addition or subtraction or both of these operations of arithmetic. A book which contains successive entries of items may be a good memorandum book; but until those entries are totalled or balanced, or both, as the case may be, there is no reckoning and no account. In the making of totals and striking of balances from time to time lies the chief safeguard under which books of account have been distinguished from other private records as capable of containing substantive evidence on which reliance may be placed', CBI v. V.C. Shukla, (1998) 3 SCC 410: AIR 1998 SC 1406: 1998 Cr LJ 1905 (SC).-All companies registered under the (English) Companies Act,1929, are by s. 122 obliged to keep books of account of (a) all receipts and expenses with matters relating thereto; (b) all sales and purchases; and (c) the assets and liabilities of the company: these books are to be open to inspection by the directors-heavy penalties for non-compliance are imposed. The aud...


Accounts, falsification of

Accounts, falsification of, a misdemeanour on the part of a clerk, etc., by the (English) Falsification of Accounts Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. C. 24), punishable by penal servitude up to seven years or imprisonment, with or without hard labour, up to two years, see R. v. Oliphant, 1905 (2) KB 67. The document or account mentioned in s. 1 of that Act must belong to or be in possession of the employer, R. v. Palin, 1906 (1) KB 7. Falsification of accounts may amount to forgery within the (English) Forgery Act, 1913 (3 & 4 Geo. 5, c. 27) [Re Arton, 1896 (1) QB 509]. The falsification of a mechanical means of recording an account, e.g., a taxi-meter, and thereby defrauding the employer, is within the Act, R. v. Solomons, (1909) 2 KB 980. As to officers of companies and bodies corporate keeping fradulent accounts, etc., see (English) Larceny Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. C. 96), ss. 82-84, and (English) Larceny Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5, c. 50), s. 20; in the case of a company being wound up. (Engli...


Mutual account

Mutual account, a 'mutual account' means not merely where one of the parties has received money and paid it on account of the other, but where each of the two parties has received and paid on the other's account. Transactions creating obligations on one side, those on the other being merely complete or partial discharges thereof, are not enough to constitute mutual account. The account is not rendered 'mutual' by the mere shifting of the balance on same occasions....


Accounting year

Accounting year, means-(i) in relation to a corporation, the year ending on the day on which the books and accounts of the corporation are to be closed and balanced; (ii) in relation to a company, the period in respect of which any profit and loss account of the company laid before it in annual general meeting is made up, whether that period is a year or not; (iii) in any other case-(a) the year commencing on the 1st day of April; or (b) if the accounts of an establishment maintained by the employer thereof are closed and balanced on any day other than the 31st day of March, then, at the option of the employer, the year ending on the day on which its accounts are so closed and balanced: Provided that an option once exercised by the employer under paragraph (b) of this sub-clause shall not again be exercised except with the previous permission in writing of the prescribed authority and upon such conditions as that authority may think fit. [Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 (21 of 1965), s. 2 (...


egularly kept books of account

egularly kept books of account, to ascertain whether a book of account has been regularly kept the nature of occupation is an eminent factor for weighment. The test of regularity of keeping accounts by a shopkeeper who has daily transactions cannot be the same as that of a broker in real estates. Not only their systems of maintaining books of account will differ but also the yardstick of contemporaneity in making entries therein. It is not possible to accept the view that an entry must necessarily be made in the book of account at or about the time the related transaction takes place so as to enable the book to pass the test of 'regularly kept'. The rule fixes no precise time and each case must depend upon its own circumstances, CBI v. V.C. Shukla, AIR 1998 SC 1406: (1998) 3 SCC 410....


Regularly kept books of account

Regularly kept books of account, to ascertain whether a book of account has been regularly kept the nature of occupation is an eminent factor for weighment. The test of regularity of keeping accounts by a shopkeeper who has daily transactions cannot be the same as that of a broker in real estates. Not only their systems of maintaining books of account will differ but also the yardstick of contemporaneity in making entries therein. It is not possible to accept the view that an entry must necessarily be made in the book of account at or about the time the related transaction takes place so as to enable the book to pass the test of 'regularly kept'. The rule fixes no precise time and each case must depend upon its own circumstances, CBI v. V.C. Shukla, AIR 1998 SC 1406: (1998) 3 SCC 410....


Accountant to the Crown

Accountant to the Crown. One who has received money for the Crown and for which he must account. The Crown's lien upon the lands of the accountant has been abolished by statute, but a lien remains upon the accountant's goods. See tit. CROWN DEBTS...


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