What is the test for reasonable time?

The term “reasonable time” used in these cases is a broad term. To discover what was meant by it in a particular case it is necessary to understand the facts of that case. The Earl of Halsbury L.J. said in Quinn v. Leathem, [1901] A.C. 496 at p. 506, that: … every judgment must be read as applicable to the particular facts proved, or assumed to be proved, since the generality of the expressions which may be found there are not intended to be expositions of the whole law, but governed and qualified by the particular facts of the case in which such expressions are to be found.

I think it necessary to look at the facts of Lister v. Dunlop and the facts of the cases that led to it in order to put the words “rea­sonable time” in their context.

In Lister v. Dunlop representatives of the creditor attended with a trustee in bankruptcy at the debtor’s premises and gave the debtor’s president two letters demanding payment forthwith. Before the president had finished reading the letters, the trustee handed him a notice which said that because of default the trustee had been appointed as receiver and manager. The minute or so between the demand and the receiver’s appointment was held not to constitute a reasonable time for payment.