Lord Macmillan.:-

The late George Alexander Chambers of Madras, being minded to make provisions for his wife and children and other relations, and being also animated with the less laudable desire to prevent the Government of India, as he put it, from "grabbing death duties" on the whole of his estate, took certain steps which he conceived would achieve these objects. The present proceedings are concerned with the question of the legal effect of these steps. Mr. Chambers carried on business as a leather merchant in Madras under the style of The Chrome

Leather Company. The business belonged to and was conducted by himself alone and the company name was no more than an alias for himself, but for the object he had in view he purported to treat the company as if it had an independent being. At the time of the transactions about to be narrated, Mr. Chamber's family consisted of his wife Ethel Mary Chambers, a son who is the present appellant, and two daughters, Phyllis Dora Chambers (Mrs. Michell) and Sheila Florence Chambers. His wife died in 1924. He married a second wife who died in 1927 leaving an infant son, who is respondent 4. In 1930 he married respondent 1 as his third wife. Resp