JUDGMENTBY: WHYATT CJ, TAYLOR J

WHYATT CJ This is an appeal from a judgment of Sir Charles Murray-Aynsley (the then Chief Justice), affirming a decision of the Commissioner of Stamps by which the Commissioner adjudged that an instrument dated the 15th September 1952 relating to the retirement of a partner from the appellant firm was a conveyance on sale or an agreement for sale, of the retiring partners share in the firm and therefore chargeable with ad valorem duty.

Two broad questions are raised in this appeal, first, whether the transaction was, as the appellants contend, a partition of partnership property and not as the respondent contends, a sale or an agreement for sale, of a retiring partners share to continuing partners; and secondly, if the transaction is a sale or an agreement for sale, of the retiring partners share, whether the document of the 15th September 1952 is a conveyance on sale within the meaning of section 2 of the Stamp Ordinance, or, alternatively, an agreement for sale within the meaning of section 21 of the Stamp Ordinance, and thus liable to ad valorem duty under Article 25 of the Schedule of that Ordinance.

In support of the argument that this was a