39.—(1) This Part applies where the postal administrator makes, or proposes to make, a distribution to any class of creditors other than secured creditors. Where the distribution is to a particular class of creditors, references in this Part to creditors shall, in so far as the context requires, be a reference to that class of creditors only.
(2) The postal administrator shall give notice to the creditors of the postal administrator’s intention to declare and distribute a dividend in accordance with Rule 65.
(3) Where it is intended that the distribution is to be a sole or final dividend, the postal administrator shall, after the date specified in the notice referred to in paragraph (2) of this Rule—
(a)defray any items payable in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 99;
(b)defray any amounts (including any debts or liabilities and the postal administrator’s own remuneration and expenses) which would, if the postal administrator were to cease to be the postal administrator of the company, be payable out of the property of which the postal administrator had custody or control in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 99; and
(c)declare and distribute that dividend without regard to the claim of any person in respect of a debt not already proved.
(4) The court may, on the application of any person, postpone the date specified in the notice.
40. Debts other than preferential debts rank equally between themselves in the postal administration and, after the preferential debts, shall be paid in full unless the assets are insufficient for meeting them, in which case they abate in equal proportions between themselves.
41.—(1) In the calculation and distribution of a dividend the postal administrator shall make provision for—
(a)any debts which appear to the postal administrator to be due to persons who, by reason of the distance of their place of residence, may not have had sufficient time to tender and establish their proofs;
(b)any debts which are the subject of claims which have not yet been determined; and
(c)disputed proofs and claims.
(2) A creditor who has not proved their debt before the declaration of any dividend is not entitled to disturb, by reason that they have not participated in it, the distribution of that dividend or any other dividend declared before their debt was proved, but—
(a)when they have proved that debt they are entitled to be paid, out of any money for the time being available for the payment of any further dividend, any dividend or dividends which they have failed to receive; and
(b)any dividends payable under sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph shall be paid before the money is applied to the payment of any such further dividend.
(3) No action lies against the postal administrator for a dividend; but if the postal administrator refuses to pay a dividend the court may, if it thinks just, order the postal administrator to pay it and also to pay, out of the postal administrator’s own money—
(a)interest on the dividend, at the rate for the time being specified in section 17 of the Judgments Act 1838(1), from the time when it was withheld; and
(b)the costs of the proceedings in which the order to pay is made.
42.—(1) The postal administrator may, with the permission of the creditors, divide in its existing form amongst the company’s creditors, according to its estimated value, any property which from its peculiar nature or other special circumstances cannot be readily or advantageously sold.
(2) The postal administrator must—
(a)in the receipts and payments account included in the final progress report under Part 9 of the Rules, state the estimated value of the property divided amongst the creditors of the company during the period to which the report relates, and
(b)as a note to the account, provide details of the basis of the valuation.
1838 c. 110, as amended by the Civil Procedure Acts Repeal Act 1879, section 2, Schedule 1, Part 1, the Statute Law Revision (No. 2) Act 1888, S.I. 1993/564, article 2, S.I. 1998/2940, article 3(a),(b) and (c).