Netherlands Bank of South Africa v 133 Yull's Trustee & The United Building Society [1914] ZAWLD 38 (28 December 1914)

Pledge.-Boolf debts.-Construction of bonds.-Knowledge of prior pledge.---Cession.-Delivery.

A clause in a bond pledging ".All the machinery, plant, appliances., tools, bookdebts, furniture, fixtures, fittings, goods and effects of every kind and nature
whatsoever on certain premises, or which may hereafter be placed thereon belonging to the mortgagor," refers, as far as the bookdebts are concerned, to book debts only in existence when the bond was passed. The rule in Coaton v. Alexander (1879 Buch. 17) that a person obtaining a pledge
with knowledge of another pledgee's prior rights acquires no preference, does
not apply to knowledge of a bond so ambiguous in its terms that from a perusal thereof the subsequent pledgee could not have known that it referred
to the same property which was subsequently pledged to him. A pledge of book debts together with a grant by the debtor to the creditor. of " Special power and authority to collect, get in, and receive all such debts," is a power irrevocable and in rem suam, implying a right in the creditor to sue, and manifesting an intention on the part of the debtor to cede his right to
the creditor.