The Gazette 1973

street was estopped from raising the argument that the

original resolution sanctioning the work was ultra vires.

The Notice served contained a notice informing the

Defendant of his Statutory Right of Appeal but he did

nothing. Mr. Smyth went also on to say that the De-

fendants were also bound by a letter received from

their Solicitors dated 8th April, 1970 in which they

stated that the expenditure on meeting the Fire Officer's

requirement would not be justified. I reject this portion

of his argument in the light of the decision in

Bord na

gCon v. Thomas Murphy,

Vol. 105 I.L.T.R., page 77,

as no evidence was given in it that the Solicitors acted

as Agents for the Defendants.

There is also an Irish case of the

County Council of

Cork and Sylvester O. Cotter v. Carde

(1963) Irish

Reports, 159 in which Mr. Justice Henchy held on

Appeal from the Circuit Court that the Defendants

who contended that a rate struck was bad on its face

because it did not comply with the statutory require-

ment in not describing the Defendants sufficiently were

estopped from raising this defence because they had

not appealed against the rate itself. In the light of this

decision and the Scottish decision and the fact that

Defendants did not appeal to the District Court as

they were entitled, from the requirements of the Notice

and that in fact they are now adopting a different

attitude to that adopted by them in their application

for an extension of time to appeal, I hold that they are

now estopped from denying that they are proprietors.

The definition of "Proprietor" has also to be dealt

with. I have searched in vain through the Public

Health Acts, Town Improvements Act and similar

legislation for a definition. Of course there is no defini-

tion of the word in the Fire Brigades Act. There are

definitions of Proprietors in the Small Dwellings Ac-

quisition Act, 1899, Section 10 (3) and in the Hotel

Proprietors Act, 1963 but in neither case do the defini-

tions help. I hope that the Legislature will see fit to

close this gap and define "Proprietor" in some future

piece of legislation. In the case of

Devlin v. Conion

(1920) quoted by Mr. Humphries the questions of whe-

ther a proprietor or occupier should be liable for illicit

distilling by a trespasser on lands and whether a pro-

prietor or occupier should be punished for the sins of

an unknown offender arose but in my opinion the

decision turned on the question of occupation or pro-

prietorship. Mr. Humphries went on to say that pro-

prietor means occupier. There is not a definition of

occupier in the Fire Brigades Act but I find that the

word is used in another Section of the Act which

relates to payment of fees to Fire Brigades acting out-

side their district—Sub-Section 2(a) of Section 4—so

the Act itself appears to distinguish between occupier

and proprietor.

In the absence of a definition in the Act I must

follow the natural, obvious and popular meaning of the

word. I must take the word in its ordinary sense. The

Concise Oxford Dictionary defines Proprietor as

Owner and on the evidence of Mr. O'Brien there is no

doubt but that the Defendants are the owners and

consequently I hold that the Defendants are Pro-

prietors within the meaning of the Fire Brigades Act,

1940.

Accordingly I am going to convict for a contraven-

tion of the Notice.

(Decision of Justice Delap given at Dun Laoghaire

District Court on 6th January, 1972.)

S.I. No. 47 of 1973

Solicitors Act 1954 (Apprenticeship and Education)

(Amendment) Regulations 1973 (S.I. No. 47, 1973)

The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland in exercise of

the powers conferred on them by Sections 4, 5 and 40

of the Solicitors Act 1954 hereby make the following

regulations.

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Solicitors

Act 1954 (Apprenticeship and Education) (Amendment)

Regulations 1973 and shall be read together with the

Solicitors Act 1924 (Apprenticeship and Education)

Regulations 1955 (S.I. No. 217 of 1955) (hereinafter

called "the Principal Regulations) and subsequent

amending Regulations.

(2) These Regulations shall come into operation on

8th February 1973.

(3) Paragraph 10 of the Principal Regulations as

amended by the Solicitors Act 1954 (Apprenticeship

and Education) (Amendment) regulations 1969 (S.I.

No. 110 of 1969) is hereby deleted and the following

paragraph is substituted therefor.

(10) The subjects at the preliminary examination

shall be as follows :

Compulsory:

English, Mathematics and Latin.

Optional:

Any three subjects from History, Geog-

raphy, Greek, a modern language

(other than Irish)

approved by the Court of Examiners, Physics, Chem-

istry, Biology, Commerce (which is comprised of four

sections namely Economics, Business Organisation,

Accountancy and Economic History of which the

candidate will take one section only).

Signed on behalf of the Incorporated Law Society of

Ireland this 8th day of February 1973.

T HOMAS V . O ' CONNOR

(President).

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