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tions passed by Bar Associations
throughout
the country with reference to the increase of Land
Registry Fees effected by the Order. It was re
solved that a deputation from the Council should
approach the Minister for Justice in order to point
out that the extraordinary increase in the expenses
of registration imposed by the Order is viewed
with concern by the solicitors profession and to
press for a modification in the Order. The Presi
dent, Messrs. Macaulay and Cox, Vice-Presidents,
J. S. O'Connor, T.D.,
J. J. Dunne and J. P.
Carrigan were appointed to form the deputation.
Unqualified Person.
THE Secretary reported that as directed by the
Coimcil he had caused proceedings to be instituted
in his name against an unqualified person for
having prepared an instrument relating to real
or personal estate, namely a letting agreement,
for fee or reward contrary to the provisions of
the Conveyancers Ireland Act, 1864, and that
he had received from Mr. P. F. O'Reilly who had
acted for him in the matter a letter stating that
since the institution of the proceedings the de
fendant had paid £20, the penalty provided by
the Act payable to the Society together with the
costs of the civil process.
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SOLICITORS.
BY order of the Chief Justice, dated 17th April,
1944, made on the application of the Society, it
was ordered that the name of Edward Daly,
Solicitor, who was admitted in Trinity Sittings,
1934, and formerly practised at Ballymahon,
Co. Longford, be struck off the Roll of Solicitors
on the ground that he had been convicted of
conspiracy to defraud.
BY order of the Chief Justice, dated 18th May,
made on a report from the Statutory Committee,
it was ordered that the name of Sydney Edwin
Cooper, who was admitted in Hilary Sittings,
1932, and formerly practised at 5, South Frederick
Street, Dublin, be struck off the Roll of Solicitors,
on the ground that he had been guilty of profess
ional misconduct.
CURRENT TOPICS.
Certificates of Taxation of Costs.
REX
v.
District Registrar of Kingston-upon-Hull.
(60 T.L.R.287), recently decided by the Court of
Appeal in England, turned upon the exact meaning
of the term certificate of taxation or allocatur
of a Taxing Master, which are synonymous
terms under both the Rules of the Supreme
Court (Ireland) 1905, and the English Rules
of the Supreme Court. The application before the
Court of Appeal was for an order of mandamus
to one of the District Registrars of the High
Court directing him to deal with certain objec
tions which the applicant desired to make on the
taxation of the plaintiff's costs of an action in
which the applicant had been the unsuccessful
defendant. The costs had been taxed and certain
items disallowed. The applicant's solicitor attend
ing the taxation on his behalf had opposed
certain other items in the bill but was overruled,
and he had neither intimated before the close
of the taxation that he intended to carry in
objections in writing, nor requested the Registrar
to postpone signing the certificate to give him an
opportunity of carrying in such objections. The
Registrar then wrote and signed on the bill a
certificate in the following terms :—"Taxed and
allowed at £493 6s. 4d.. August 31st, signed, A. V.
Rhodes, District Registrar." The applicant's
solicitor, on September 3rd, served notice of
objection to the taxation, but the Registrar
refused to accept it on the ground that the
taxation could not be re-opened after the signing
of the certificate. The application for the order of
mandamus against the Registrar was based on
the ground that the procedure on taxation had
not been in accordance with the Rides of Court,
and that the note made on the bill of costs was
not a certificate of taxation. The Court held that
the procedure had not been irregular and that
the note on the bill was a sufficient certificate,
and satisfied the four essential conditions for
that purpose. Those conditions were that it
should contain (1) the nature of the cause or
matter (2) an indication of the party whose
costs are to be paid (3) the amount at which the
bill is taxed and (4) the signature of the Taxing
Master or other responsible official giving the
certificate. O.65 R.66 (1) of R.S.C.
(Ireland)
1905, prescribing the proper procedure to obtain
a review of taxation, is substantially similar in
terms to the corresponding English O.65 R.27
(39). Our Rules of Court contain no general
definition or description of a certificate of taxa
tion. O.52 R.9 provides that a certificate of taxa
tion of costs to be paid out of a fund in Court
shall be in the form No. 5 in appendix M to the
Rules, but this rule is limited in its application
to special cases. It would therefore seem that
although by custom a certificate of a Taxing
Master of the High Court is issued in the familiar
form as a separate document it need not necess
arily be so, and that (except in the case of costs
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