The House of Lords has decided that the shareholders in
Overend , Gurney, and Co. are liable for the debts of that company. They pleaded that they were not liable because they had been deceived, but the Lords decide that though the shareholders may have a remedy against those who deceive them, they, by permitting their names to remain on the register, incur full liability to their creditors. That register was made public by the Limited Lia- bility Act for that very reason and object. Consequently, such shareholders as are on the register at the time of winding up, unless placed there absolutely without their knowledge, are con- tributories: The decision is a hard one, but it is, from the detailed judgments, clearly just in law, and the moral argument may be summed up in a single line. The shareholders would have taken the profits, and they must therefore take the losses. Any other course is "welching," and nothing else.
