In what circumstances will a company refuse to follow instructions of two joint shareholders as to how to register their interests?

In Burns v. Siemens Brothers the issue was a company’s refusal to follow instructions of two joint shareholders as to how to register their interests in many jointly held shares. The articles contained a similar provision as here, providing that in the case of jointly held shares, the person whose name is first in the register of members would be entitled to exercise the vote. The two shareholders who jointly held almost 20,000 shares were concerned that if the person listed first on the register was absent from a meeting, that the junior person would not be able to vote the shares and so the voting rights attached to all the shares would be lost. They came up with an idea that they would split their holdings into two approximately equal holdings, and instruct the company to list one of them first on the register with respect to one half of the jointly held shares, and to list the other one first on the register with respect to the remaining group of jointly held shares. The company refused.