Unsecured trade creditors:

It refers to a "class" of members or of creditors. Obviously if two or more companies are involved or if one company has two classes of shares, eg. preference and ordinary, or is proposing a compromise with different classes of creditors, eg. debenture holders and unsecured trade creditors, it must ask the court to order that separate meetings be held of each group and it must obtain the required majority approval at each meeting.  But the principle is carried even further.  If within say one class of shareholders there are groups whose interests in the proposed scheme are clearly different the court must be asked to order that separate meetings be called of each group.  Therefore it has been said that each meeting "must be confined to those persons whose rights are not so dissimilar as to make it impossible for them to consult together with a view to their common interest" (Sovereign Life Assurance Co v Dodd).

Whether those who propose the scheme do not in their application to the court distinguish each such group (to be consulted separately) the court will at the final decision stage withhold its approval on the ground that there has not been fair and proper consultation.