The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

APRIL . 1993

present case where, in effect, an attachment of future earnings has been sought. "The provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 also are relevant. This Act imposes specific restrictions on deductions from wages. These in general are prohibited by law, but section 5 allows an employer to deduct in certain circumstances. But section 5(5) (0 only allows a deduction in the present type of case where the employee consents and no consent is forthcoming in the present case. The process of involuntary attachment referred to in section 5(5) (g) applies where the garnishee is a third party and is designed to cater for cases such as where the employer compulsorily deducts monies to satisfy the maintenance awards in respect of a spouse. These two exceptions cannot be circumvented by recourse to Ord. 45, r.l of the Rules of the Superior Courts 1986. "Of course, BTE is a public company and it is obliged to attempt to recover this debt. It cannot act for merely charitable purposes and simply write off the debt. BTE have also the remedy of commital for refusal to comply with the terms of the instalment order. It seems to me that it may very well be in Mr. Shalvey's best interests to come to an arrangement with his employer under section 5(5) (f) with regard to the discharge of the debt, but this is obviously a matter for the parties. Since I hold that BTE cannot avail of Ord. 45, r.l to attach future debts, it follows that I must dismiss the application. "As far as costs are concerned, in many ways the merits of the case are with BTE, since they continue to be out of pocket. In my view, the justice of the case would not be met by the making of an award of costs. No order as to costs." The debt was subsequently discharged. Judges Must Set Out Facts and Law in Detail It has been said that prolixity or long windedness is virtually the

handmaiden of the lawyer. Many lawyers would dispute this assertion. An individual solicitor or barrister would claim that it is always the other solicitor or barrister who is prolix and longwinded. Each of us would like to think that we express ..ourselves succinctly and to the point. Many of us value brevity. However, the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Joined Cases C-320 to C.322/90, Telemarsicabruzzo SpA and Others -v- Circostel and Others, (judgment delivered on January 26, 1993) in effect, considered that there are dangers lurking when one is too brief and when one does not set out the law and facts in appropriate detail. In Circostel, the Court of Justice considered that it was necessary for national judges to describe the factual and legislative background in sufficient detail to enable the Court of Justice to provide an interpretation of Community law. The European Court of Justice so held in refusing to answer questions submitted to it by the Rome District Magistrates' Court for a preliminary ruling pursuant to Article 117 of the EC Treaty. Questions had been submitted in the context of proceedings between the applicant companies who were owners of television transmitters on the one hand, and the Department for the Construction of Telegraph and Telephone Networks of Rome, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Ministry for Defence on the other. The dispute related to the interpretation of the Treaty's rules on competition with a view to establishing the compatibility with Community law of certain aspects of the national system of distributing frequencies for television broadcasters. In its judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Communities ruled as follows: 1. The Commission has pointed out in its observations that the references for a preliminary ruling were particularly laconic and

lacking in detail with regard to the elements of fact and of law which would make it possible to establish the purpose of the questions submitted and thereby to understand their meaning and scope. 2. The need to arrive at an interpretation of Community Law which would be useful for a national court required that the latter should define the factual and legislative background to the questions which it submitted or at least that it would explain the premises on which those questions were based. 3. Those requirements were particularly necessary in the field of competition law when complex factors and legal situations were involved. 4. Although the file submitted by the national court as well as written and oral observations submitted by the parties had provided certain information for the Court, nonetheless that information was fragmentary and did not enable the Court, in the absence of sufficient knowledge of the facts competition rules in the light of the situation which had given rise to those proceedings as the national court invited it to do. 5. On those grounds, the European Court held that it was not necessary to rule on the questions submitted. • In Ireland COT DEATH is the largest killer of children under the age of two. The Irish Sudden Infant Death Association supports bereaved families and funds cot death research. If your client wishes to make a will in favour of Cot Death Research further information is available from I S I D A Carmichael House, 4 North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7. Telephone: 747007 / 73271 1 upon which the national proceedings were based, to interpret the Community

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