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duce a barrister generally better qualified when
he is called to the Bar. If a few students having
no
intention of entering practice but able to
acquire the title of barrister are now prevented
from so doing no harm will have been done.
The council should not be criticized for raising
its fees in order properly to carry out the scheme.
A Dean of Faculty and several full-time teaching
staff have recently been appointed for the first time,
and if standards of education are raised so must
the cost, since the council receives no assistance
from public funds. It is to be hoped, however, that
the need for such assistance will be strongly urged
on the Government by the Lord Chancellor's com
mittee. If it
is
in
the public
interest that an
efficient
legal profession be maintained public
funds must be used to ensure that a potential
barrister is not prevented from following his career
solely through lack of means.
CROSS-SUBSIDISATION
A true fable
MR. BYRNE^ who was a pensioner living in a
small house in Dublin, died leaving no assets other
than his house upon which there was a mortgage
with a building society.
His widow succeeded with the assistance of the
Probate Office in extracting a grant to his will
whereby he left the house to her. As his pension
was very small his only child, who was a daughter
and who had a job as a typist, had been paying
most of the outgoings before his death. His widow
had no income or prospect of work.
Mrs. Byrne and her daughter called to their
solicitor, handed him the Grant of Probate, and
asked him to transfer the house to the daughter
for natural love and affection subject to
the
amount outstanding on foot of the building society
mortgage. Understandably, they made it clear to
the solicitor that they thought this was a simple
little transaction envisaging as they did that the
solicitor would merely have to " draw up a simple
little deed".
Having taken these instructions the solicitor set
about carrying them out. He wrote to the building
society, notified them of his interest, asked them to
make the title deeds available on accountable
receipt and applied to the society to sanction the
transaction giving details of the daughter's earn
ings and soforth. He duly obtained this sanction,
attended and took up the title deeds and paid them
their fee therefor, signing an accountable receipt.
As
the building society had not heard of Mr.
Byrne's death the solicitor reminded them that the
policy of insurance on the house should be appro
priately amended. Anticipating correctly that ulti
mately the deed would have to be lodged for
adjudication, he obtained all the necessary data
from the deed, instructed a valuer whose report he
subsequently received and paid for. There was cor
respondence between the solicitor, this valuer and
the client about arrangements for inspection of the
property.
On reading the title the solicitor observed that
the local authority would have to be joined in the
proposed deed by virtue of the lease in question
and he drafted the deed which had as parties Mrs.
Byrne, the building society, the local authority
and Miss Byrne. As this deed had to recite among
other things the existence of the mortgage and
the amount then outstanding by way of mortgage,
certain blanks had to be left therein. Although he
tried to keep the deed as short as he could, the
draft filled three pages of brief paper. He sent the
draft deed to the local authority for approval and
having got it back with certain amendments and
having satisfied himself about these he had the
deed sent to the building society's solicitors who
returned
it approved. He then had
the deed
engrossed and drew a memorial and took the
precaution of taking an extra copy of the deed
because he knew it would have to be lodged for
adjudication of stamp duty. He sent the deed to
the local authority for execution accompanied by
the draft for comparison and at the same time
took the precaution of writing to the housing
branch and obtained a letter from them consenting
to the assignment in so far as a mortgage was now
being taken over by a new mortgagor.
Having paid the solicitor to the local authority
his fee in connection with the draft deed and the
execution of the engrossment and so forth and
having retrieved same the solicitor called in his
two clients and had the deed executed by both and
the memorial by one of them he paid the com
missioner's fee on the latter document and he
sent these documents together with those which he
had previously taken up on accountable receipt to
the solicitor for the building society.
However, while he was engaged on the foregoing
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