230 / 448
"Despondent"
Mortgagees!
Madam,
I know a lot of practitioners beset
with cut price conveyancing
unreasonable lending institution
requirements and time limits that
require miracles not expertise, will
I sympathise with the sentiments
expressed in a printed form
i memorial that this office received
recently in a Bank mortgage
package. The jurat to the memorial
is ordinary enough [except of course
not suitable for a laser printer] but
right at the end it says "Sworn before
me this . . day of. . at. . in the
County of . . . and I know the
"Despondent"
(sic).
Yours etc,
! Noeline
Blackwell,
Blackwell & Co.,
98 Upper Drumcondra
Road,
Strange World!
Madam,
Please can someone answer me?
Why do people phone to tell you the
contents of a letter they have just
posted to you?
Why do people routinely post
letters that they have already sent
by fax?
I believe and hope that we are moving
in the direction of the paperless
society - but people who don't
believe the evidence of transmission
of their own faxes still sow doubts in
my mind. Maybe they have shares in
An Post as well as Telecom? Or are
they so pulling in the profits that they
must try desperately to increase
overheads in order to reduce tax?
Strange world!
Yours etc,
Anthony
Brady,
Taylor & Buchalter,
Greenside
House,
45/47 Cuffe Street,
Dublin 1.
Successors in Title
Madam,
I refer to letters written to you by
James O'Connor
of M.J. O'Connor &
Company of Wexford (Jan/Feb 1996
Gazette) and
Michael D. Peart
of
Pearts of Dublin (Apr/May 1996
Gazette) confirming their firms have
the distinction of four generations of
solicitors in an unbroken line.
I, too, was able to claim the same
distinction for this firm when my son,
Stephen,
qualified in 1974 and
joined the firm.
Yours etc,
Dan Miley,
Miley & Miley,
35 Molesworth
Street,
Dublin 2.
Book Reviews -
continued
author finds not to be an entirely
satisfactory authority for a number of
; reasons, Barron J concluded that the
j principles of law affecting secret and
half secret trusts are the same and are
those set out in
R- Kina's Estate
(1888)
21 LR IR 273
by Monroe J.
i
The General Picture
Generally, the picture that emerges
from Delany's pages is not one
obviously characterised by excessive
originality or reforming zeal on the
part of practitioners or of the
legislature. Our colleagues across the
water got a new Trustee Act in 1925;
I we have to struggle on with that of
1893. Neither do we have in this
jurisdiction an Act similar to the
variation of Trusts Act 1958 which
provides that a court may, if it thinks
fit, approve an arrangement varying or
revoking a trust or enlarging the
powers of the trustees.
On the question whether equity in this
jurisdiction is still developing, Delany
finds a marked reluctance to extend
the scope of certain doctrines, noting
in particular
L. (B.)
v L.
(M.)
[1992] 2 IR
77.
In that case, it will be recalled, Barr
J held that having regard to Article
41.2 of the Constitution, a woman who
elected to adopt the full time role of
wife and mother should have her work
in the home taken into account and he
therefore held that the plaintiff wife
was entitled to a 50%beneficial
interest in the family home and its
contents. In the Supreme Court which
allowed the appeal of the appellant
husband, Finlay CJ concluded
inter
alia
that such an extension would not
be to develop any principle known to
the common law but rather would
involve the creation of an entirely
new right.
The reviewer's final comment is that
this is a well-written, well-constructed
book on a subject of considerable
practical interest.
Professor J.M.G. Sweeney
•
214