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PRESIDENTS' MESSAGE
I am very glad to welcome this new volume of the
Gazette
with its pristine new cover, which I feel sure
will receive general approval. Law is ever becoming a
more complex subject. The
Gazette
is to be commended
in so far as it tries to foster ideas based on jurisprudence
and also encourages members and other lawyers to
express them, while at the same time giving full expres-
sion to more practical legal problems. The
Gazette
in
its new format deserves to be carefully read by all,
because it tries to present the driest legal problems in
an interesting and readable way. Long may it flourish!
BRENDAN A . MC G R A T H,
President.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL
March 25th: The President in the chair, also present
Messrs William Brendan Allen, Walter Beatty, Bruce
St. John Blake, John Carrigan, Anthony Eugene Collins,
Gerard M. Doyle, Joseph L. Dundon, James R. C.
Green, Thomas Jackson Jnr., Timothy K. Keai.
Francis J. Lanigan, Eunan McCarron, Patrick J.
McEllin, Patrick McEntee, John Maher, Gerald J.
Moloney, Patrick C. Moore, Desmond Moran, Senator
John J. Nash, George A. Nolan, Roderick J. O'Connor,
Thomas Valentine O'Connor, Patrick F. O'Donnell,
James W. O'Donovan, John A. O'Meara, William A.
Osborne, David R. Pigot, Peter D. M. Prentice, Mrs.
Moya Quinlan, Robert McD. Taylor, Ralph J. Walker.
The following was among the business transacted.
Legal Remuneration
The Minister for Justice received a further deputation
from the Society consisting of the President with Mr.
James W. O'Donovan, Vice-President, Senator Nash
and Messrs Green, Noonan and the Secretary. The
President made a verbal report of the meeting with the
Minister. The deputation had strongly pressed for the
establishment of a single costs committee headed by a
judge with representatives from the profession and the
public interest and including chartered accountants.
The Minister stated that he would consider the Society's
representations.
Legal Education
A deputation from the Society was received by the
Minister for Justice. The subject matter was the memor-
andum submitted by the Society in June 1969 asking
for legislation which would empower the Society to
prescribe the system of legal education subject to judi-
cial control and making proposals inter alis for a joint
svstem of legal education with the Bar, a compulsory
university degree and a short term of paid apprentice-
ship after a period at the Society's Law School. The
Minister had suggested that the Societv should seek an
interview with the benchers of the Hon. Societv of
King's Inns. It was decided this should be done.
Legal Publications
It was reported that projects are under way for a text-
book on Irish Land Law to be written bv Mr. f. W.
Wvlie, Queen's University, Belfast, and a work on the
Law of Evidence in Ireland by Mr. Cole, Trinitv Col-
lege. Dublin. Further projects are under consideration.
ACTION ON FOOT OF WAGERS AND BETS
In the case of R. v Weisz and Another
ex parte
Hector
McDonald Limited (1951 2 AER 408) an application
o
for attachment for contempt of court was brought
against a plaintiff in an action on foot of a gaming debt
and his solicitor. The action was brought by Hector
McDonald Ltd. a firm of bookmakers and the endorse-
ment on the writ which was settled by counsel was in
the following terms.
The plaintiff's claim was for the sum of £373-13-4
being the balance found to be due from the defendant
to the plaintiff on accounts stated between them in
writing and contained in a letter dated 26/9/1950.
In fact there never had been an account stated
between the parties. The court held that an action to
recover money which was prohibited by statute was in
abuse of the process of the court and although it was
not necessarily a contempt of court to bring sucli an
action, to attempt to deceive the court by disguising the
true nature of the claim and putting forward a feigned
issue was contempt. In the course of his judgment Lord
Goddard, G.J., said : "The gravamen of the case against
Mr. Martin is that the endorsement on the writ was
wholly fictitious and was designed to conceal from the
court the true nature of Mr. Weisz's claim. . . . To
attempt to deceive the court by disguising the true
nature of the claim is a contempt. Where an action is
brought on a contract which is
ex facie
illegal the court
will decline to enforce the contract whether illegalitv is
pleaded or not. It is the duty of the court when asked
to give a judgment which is contrary to a statute to take
the point although the litigants may not take it. The
very fact that on many previous occasions resort has
been had to this particular form of endorsement in cases
which are simply brought for the recovery of money
won at betting or gaming is what gives importance to
this present motion. It is time that this practice should
be stopped and in no uncertain manner. The mischief
is obvious. Parliament has ordered that the courts are
not to be used for this purpose. Many people may be
deterred from defending such actions if brought for
fear of publicity. If the writ were truthfully endorsed
for money won at betting it would be wholly improper
to allow a default judgment to be entered. TTie duty of
the Central Office would be to bring the matter before
the Practice Master and he in his turn ought not and I
am sure would not allow a judgment to be signed
which would in effect be contrary to the provisions of
the statute. If a writ is endorsed for a fictitious but
apparently legal cause of action a default judgment
could be signed as of course and accordingly and in our
opinion this leads to the interference with or distortion
of the course of justice."
The Council considered this judgment and in the
Society's
Gazette,
February 1958, the following state-
ment was published.
Gaming and Lotteries Act, 1956
Members asked the opinion of the Council as to the
propriety of accepting instructions for the recovery of
gaming debts since the passing of the Act. Section 26
(2) of the Act states that "no action shall lie for the
recoverv of any money or thing which is alleged to be
won or to have been paid upon a wager which has
been deposited to or by the event on which a wafer is
made". In a recent English case, R. v Weisz 1951 2
AER 408. Lord Goddard criticised counsel and solicitor
who acted in the case for the recovery of a gaming debt
in which the cause of action was described as an
account stated and settled. It is understood that since
the report of this case members of the Bar have been
unwilling to sign pleadings. The matter was referred to
a committee for a report. Having considered the com-
mittee's report the Council decided to advise members