Description of debts provable in bankruptcy

(1) Demands in the nature of unliquidated damages arising otherwise than by reason of a contract, promise or breach of trust shall not be provable in bankruptcy. (2) A person having notice of any act of bankruptcy available against the debtor shall not prove under the order for any debt or liability contracted by the debtor subsequently to the date of his so having notice. (3) Except as aforesaid, all debts and liabilities, present or future, certain or contingent, to which the debtor is subject at the date of the receiving order, or to which he may become subject before his discharge by reason of any obligation incurred before the date of the receiving order, shall be deemed to be debts provable in bankruptcy. (4) An estimate shall be made by the trustee of the value of any debt or liability provable as aforesaid, which by reason of its being subject to any contingency or contingencies, or for any other reason, does not bear a certain value. 40 (5) Any person aggrieved by any estimate made by the trustee under subsection (4) of this section, may appeal to the (6) Where, in the opinion of the court, the value of the debt or liability is incapable of being fairly estimated, the court may make an order to that effect, and thereupon the debt or liability shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be a debt not (7) Where, in the opinion of the court, the value of the debt or liability is capable of being fairly estimated, the court may direct the value to be assessed before the court itself, without the intervention of a jury, and may give all necessary directions for this purpose, and the amount of the value when assessed shall be deemed to be a debt provable in bankruptcy. (8) For the purposes of this Act, “liability” shall include, (a) any compensation for work or labour done; (b) any obligation or possibility of an obligation to pay money or money’s worth on the breach of any express or implied covenant, contract, agreement, or undertaking, whether the breach does or does not occur, or is or is not likely to occur, or capable of occurring before the discharge of the debtor; and (c) generally it shall include any express or implied engagement, agreement or undertaking, to pay, or capable of resulting in the payment of money, or money’s worth, whether the payment is, as respects amount fixed or unliquidated, as respects time, present or future, certain or dependent on any one contingency, or on two or more contingencies, as to mode of valuation, 41 capable of being ascertained by fixed rules, or a matter of opinion.