The Gazette 1907-8

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JUNK, 1907] The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland. 23
COURT OF APPISAI. (ENGLAND).
(Before Alverstone, C.J.; her Moulton,
and Buckley, ).
Clare v. Joseph.
May 2nd, 1907.— Solicitor—Costs—Oral agree
ment— Validity against Solicitor — Solicitors
Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict., c. 28), s. 4.
A SOLICITOR made an oral agreement with his
client, who was the plaintiff in an action, that
if the action was successful the client should
pay no costs, leaving the solicitor to recover
his costs from the other party to the action,
and if the action was unsuccessful the client
should only pay to the solicitor such costs as
the latter would have been entitled to receive
from the other party if the action had been
successful. The client was successful in the
action. The solicitor, who had received the
taxed party and party costs from the other
party to the action, claimed to recover from
the client the difference between solicitor and
client costs and the party and party costs
received. The client set up the above agree
ment :
Held, that, as the client set up the agree
ment, it was not required to be in writing
under section 4 of the Solicitors Act, 1870,
and was therefore binding upon the solicitor.
Reported in T.L.R., Vol. xxm.,'page 498.
KING'S BENCH DIVISION.
9//z May, 1907.
(Before O'Brien, C.J. ; Gibson and Kenny,
"JJ-)
The King (Kenned)'} v. Cyril Broivne.
Taxed Costs—Revision-by Local Government
Board Auditor.
THE Rural District Council of Ennis em
ployed their solicitor to prepare agreements
bonds and warrants in relation to tin; erection
of labourers' cottages, and of fences in
. connexion therewith, such agreements consti
tuting the contracts between the Council and
their building contractors. There were twenty-
eight cottages to be built, and fences to be
erected round ninety plots of land, the total
costs of the scheme being approximately
^8950, and the total amount of the contract
prices for buildings and fences was ^4274.
The solicitor prepared a common form of
agreement bond and warrant applicable to
every case, with blanks for the names of the
contractor, and his sureties and the contract
price and site of the proposed works, and got
them printed. There were 113 accepted
tenders, many of them sent in by the same
contractor, and a separate contract was signed
for each accepted tender. The solicitor's costs
of the scheme were taxed, an independent
solicitor attending on the taxation on behalf
of the District Council. There was included
in the costs and allowed on taxation a bulk fee
of £2 zs. for the preparation and execution
of the agreement bond and warrant in the case
of each of 113 accepted tenders.
The Local Government Board Auditor re
duced the taxed bills by the sum of £67 16$.,
and in his certificate of surcharge stated he
was of opinion that the employment of a
solicitor for the purpose of performing what he
regarded as the purely clerical duty of filling
up the blanks in the printed forms of agree
ment was unnecessary and the payment thereof
unfounded, and he therefore disallowed i zs.
on each of the r 13 items of £z 2s., measuring
the sum of izs. by reference to a previous audit
in a different district. The Auditor further
stated that in former schemes in that district
similar contracts had been filled up by the
clerk or his assistant.
The powers of Auditors contained in sect.
12 of Irish Local Government Act, 1871, and
sect. 20 of the Irish Local Government Act,
1902, were fully discussed. The Labourers
Act, 1906, had not been passed, and, there
fore, did not apply:
Held unanimously (Kenny, J., expressing
doubt, but assenting), that there being no
illegality in the contract between the Council
and the solicitor, and no suggestion of fraud,
collusion, misconduct, or neglect, and the costs
having been taxed by the appropriate officer,
the Taxing Master, and an independent soli
citor having attended the taxation on behalf of
the Council, the employment and payment
of a solicitor in this case was not " misconduct
or negligence," on the part of the members of
the Council authorizing such employment, and
the auditor's surcharge disallowing the pay
ment to the solicitor was overruled.