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GAZETTE
JULY/AUGUS
T 1982
Correspondence
Charles R.M Meredith, Esq.,
Solicitor,
C/o The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland,
Blackhall Place,
Dublin 7.
2nd July, 1982
Dear Mr Meredith,
I have been shown a copy of the Incorporated Law
Society's
Gazette
for October 1981 containing an
article by you under the title "The Legal Problems of
Ageing" and as I was for a number of years an
official in the office of the Registrar of Wards of
Court (and previously in the office of the Registrar to
The Chief Justice) in Dublin, I found your article of
much interest and I am taking the liberty of writing to
you.
In particular, I was surprised to see that in both the
Republic and Northern Ireland the provisions of
sections 13, 14, 15, 18 and 68 of the Lunacy
Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1871, have apparently
remained substantially unaltered since their
enactment, except as to the monetary limits
mentioned in section 68.
I like your suggestion to the effect that every case,
regardless of the capital value of the estate or its
income (but presumably excluding those under
section 103), should be capable of being dealt with
under section 68. Quite a long time ago (1930) I
published a small volume "Law and Practice in
Lunacy in Ireland" dealing with these matters and,
had it then occurred to me, I might well have made
the suggestion myself.
While in the Registry, and later while in practice at
the Bar, I had occasion to participate in several of
these lunacy inquisitions with juries under the Act,
and my experience was that in such cases juries are
mistakenly inclined to treat the matter as a criminal
trial, requiring that the appropriate standard
applicable is proof of insanity
beyond all reasonable
doubt.
Indeed I recall one case, heard before the then
Registrar (the late John Muldoon K.C.), where the
alleged lunatic, who was obviously mentally very
deficient, was declared by the jury not to be of
unsound mind, where-upon the Registrar, in closing
the proceedings, told him (quite correctly) that he
was probably the only person then in Court who had
ever been expressly found by a jury to be sane!
With kind regards and congratulations upon your
article.
Yours sincerely,
L.G.E. Harris,
P.O. Box 43798
Nairobi,
Kenya.
The Editor,
Gazette I.L.S.I.
Blackhall Place,
Dublin 7.
4th October 1982
Re. Solicitors Golfing Society
Dear Sir,
I intend making some research into the general
history and foundation of the above Society and
would be obliged to receive from members any
information whatsqever concerning the Society viz.
press cuttings, photographs, score cards, names of
winners, venues of outings etc.
It appears that the Irish Solicitor's Golfing Society
was in fact founded on 7th October 1920 at a Meeting
held in Portmarnock Golf Club. The purpose of the
Society was to bring together in the field of Golf
members of the Solicitors Profession throughout
Ireland.
The first Officers elected were President: C. St. G.
Gamble, Pres. I.L.S.I., Captain: J. B. Moore,
Committee: Thomas F. Monks, Basil Thompson,
Paul A. Brown, R. G. Warren and T. Earley, Hon.
Secretary: H. Horan.
I have a Booklet which gives the names of the
Presidents and Captains from 1920 to 1933 and
which also contains some of the rules, the winners of
the various cups and a list of members, any further
information would be very welcome.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours sincerely,
Gerard M. Doyle,
Solicitor,
Rutledge Doyle & Co.,
51 Lower O'Connell St.,
Dublin 1.
The Editor,
Law Society Gazette,
Blackhall Place,
Dublin 7.
17th August, 1982
Re: Feeding the Estoppel
Dear Madam,
We will all be pleased with the Recommendation of
the Joint Committee of Building Societies Solicitors
and the law Society published in the June 1982 issue
of the Gazette that no Deed of Rectification be
required where a Deed of Release is dated
subsequent to the Deed of Assignment and that the
doctrine of Feeding the Estoppel operates and
soforth. The recommendation mentions that the legal
profession has been crying out for years to have
Releases operate like Vacates.
I think I can claim to have been the first of our
profession to champion this (? lost) cause. In the
course of an address as then President to the A.G.M.
of November 1969 I said:—
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