The law makes a distinction between absolute assignments and other non absolute assignments.It is well established that in order for a an assignee of a debt to be able to sue the assignor for the obligation to pay the debt under the contract the assignment must be an absolute one . If it is a partial assignment the assignee must join the assignee to the proceeding to enable him to prove the assignment is subsisting. This is owed to the nature of the partial assignment which does not allow someone to know whether it still operational by the time the assignee sues the debtor. An assignment by way of charge may state that a debt is assigned to a creditor as security for a loan until the money is repaid ( Durham Bros V Robertson [1898] 1 Q.B. 765 )in this case the creditor/assignee in order to sue for the debt must join the assignor to the action since it is not possible for the debtor ( not the assignor /debtor) himself to know if the assignment is still legally valid or it has been invalidated by the payment of the transaction and hence risking paying the wrong party. To put it another way he has no access to the transactions and accounting books between the assignor and assignee, this can only be done if the assignor is before the court himself so he may also be bound by the decision. This way the assignee is protected from the eventuality of facing a potential lawsuit by the assignor for wrongly paying the debt to a party who claims he is an assignee. However an issue of practical importance is the identification of the type of assignment (whether absolute or partial) as the assignee. For this, one need to look at the wording of the assignment and whether it safely allows the debtor to pay the assignee without risking paying the same amount twice to the assignor. Thus, if he receives notice from the assignee that the debt has been assigned to him and it will be re-assigned to the assignor ones the debt is settled, the debtor does not need to investigate into the dealing between the assignor and assignee. He may safely may assume that the debt has not been paid since he has not received notice of reassignment until he receives notice of reassignment then he may pay the assignee. Though, In the case of an assignment by way of charge there is nothing to indicate to the debtor that the assignment still subsists, that it is still valid there is no safety net of reassignment occurrence, there is only the repayment of the debt that would invalidate the assignment. In conclusion it all boils down to how the wording of the assignment reflects the intentions of the parties.
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