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Increased Solicitors' remuneration
THE President reported that by the Land Registra–
tion Rules 1947 an increase of 25 per cent, was
authorised in respect of business transacted after
3ist March, 1947, under the Land Registration Rules
1937 to 1946. The new rules were printed in the
March number of the Gazette.
He also reported that the discussions with the
Committee under the Solicitors' Remuneration Act
1881 for an increase in the costs prescribed by the
General Order of 1884 were proceeding.
Applications under Section 47
Two applications from solicitors for leave to take
out their practising certificates were considered and
granted on payment of the current duty.
Delays
in the Land Registry
THE Secretary reported that he had received letters
from a number of solicitors complaining of great
delay in the transaction of business in the Land
Registry. He stated that he had discussed
the
matter with the Registrar of Titles and was satisfied
that the delay is due entirely to shortage of staff.
It was ordered that steps should be taken to have a
question asked in Dail Eireann with a view to
drawing attention to the necessity for the provision
of adequate staff in the Land Registry.
EMERGENCY POWERS (NO. 378)
ORDER, 1946
THE attention of the profession is drawn to the
above Order which is made under the Emergency
Powers Acts 1939-45 revoking the following articles
of the Emergency Powers Order 1939 : 12, 16,
28, 29, 37, 39, 46 (part), 50, 70, 78, 86, 87, 90. The
provisions of these articles related to the following
matters : Sabotage ; obstruction ;
safeguarding ;
power to obtain information; photography, etc.
power to work on and entry and inspection of land ;
control of lights and sounds ;
causing disaffection ;
licensing of roads and vehicles ;
recovery of ex–
penses ;
entrusting of functions to Statutory Cor–
porations ;
legal proceedings.
COMPLETION OF SALES WITH
UNGUARANTEED CHEQUES
THE Council deem it advisable to publish for the
guidance of the profession their opinion as to the
practice which should be adopted in paying over
the balances of purchase moneys .on the completion
of sales.
The law as stated in the standard text
books is that the vendor is bound to accept legal
tender. He is entitled to refuse to accept a bank
draft or a cheque, whether or not it is guaranteed
by a bank.
It has, however, been the custom for
very many years of the profession in Ireland to hand
over the title deeds in exchange for a Bank draft
or a cheque guaranteed by a bank for the amount of
the purchase money.
It has also been the general
practice of solicitors acting for vendors to refuse to
accept cheques for the balance of purchase moneys,
whether signed bypurchasers or their solicitors, unless
so guaranteed. The Council strongly recommend
that this should be adopted as a uniform practice.
In their opinion unguaranteed cheques for
the
balance of purchase moneys, whether signed by
the purchasers or their solicitors, should neither be
offered nor accepted. To offer an unguaranteed
cheque to another solicitor may place him in a
position of embarrassment, and it would be in the
interests of the profession as a whole that a uniform
practice should be observed throughout the country.
REMUNERATION OF SOLICITORS
TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
BOARD
IN the High Court on July 26, Overend, J, made a
declaration that Martin A. Harvey, Solicitor, had
been employed by South Cork Board of Public
Assistance as their solicitor on a taxed-costs basis
since October, 1942.
The Plaintiff's case was that
on 28th February, 1938
he was appointed per–
manent solicitor to the Board
" on
taxed-costs
basis, subject to the Minister's sanction, the Board's
liability for this legal work not to exceed .£250."
The Minister's sanction, dated ijth March, 1938.
read : " If the proposal is to employ Mr. Harvey
as solicitor to the Board on a taxed-costs basis, the
Minister sees no objection thereto." The Plaintiff
claimed that by the Board's adoption of this sanction
he was duly appointed as solicitor to the Board on
a taxed-costs basis, and that the addition to the
Board's resolution purported to limit the Board's
liability to £250, were also void. Overend, J. said
that the only matter the Minister sanctioned was the
Plaintiff's appointment on a taxed-costs basis, with–
out any overriding maximum, and the fact that the
Plaintiff had acted as solicitor to the Board ever since
indicated that the Board had accepted the Minister's
qualification of what they had done.
If, in fact, the
Board and the Minister were in disagreement, there
had been no valid appointment, but the Plaintiff
having done the law work for the Board, was
entitled to taxed-costs. On February 4, the Supreme
Court (Maguire, C. J. O'Byrne and Black,
J J.)
dismissed with costs an appeal by the Board of
Assistance from the Order of the High Court.
OBITUARY
MR. ROBERT C. BATHURST, Solicitor, died at his
7°