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of Justice requesting the Council to nominate a
member of the Irish Legal Terms Advisory
Committee constituted under the provisions of
the above-nientioned Act. The Council nominated
Mr. Scan 6 hUadhaigh as their representative on
the Committee.
Land Registration Fee Order, 1944.
THE Secretary reported that following the publica
tion of the Land Registration Fee Order, 1944, of
which the Council had not received any previous
notification, a deputation had interviewed the
Minister for Justice in order to point out the
exorbitant increases in the Land Registry fees
imposed by the Order and to press for its revoca
tion or drastic amendment. A reasoned statement
of the case for the revocation of the order had also
been prepared in the form of a memorandum,
which was submitted on behalf of the Council to
the Minister for Justice. Following the receipt of
this memorandum from the Council, the Minister
for Justice had appointed a Committee under the
chairmanship of Mr. H. B. O'Hanlon, Taxing
Master of the High Court, to investigate and
report to him upon the effects of the Order and
as to whether any changes in the new scale of
fees should be made. A copy of the Council's
memorandum had been circulated to the members
of the Committee. The Council had been invited
to nominate two members of the Committee and
appointed the President and Mr. John B. Hamill.
In addition to the chairman there were three
other members of the Committee, all of whom
were Civil Servants. The Committee had met on
a number of occasions and eventually submitted a
majority and a minority report to the Minister.
The minority report was signed by the representa
tives of the Council, while the majority report
was signed by the other members of the Committee
and the Chairman. The Minister, after considering
the reports had notified the Society that he had
decided to adopt the views expressed in the
Majority Report and that no changes would
be made in the scale of fees authorised by the
Land Registration Fee Order, 1944. It was ordered
that the matter should be placed on the agenda
of the Half-Yearly General Meeting of the Society
to be held on November 26th.
Petrol for Solicitors.
THE Secretary reported that since the end of the
war he had again written to the Department of
Supplies requesting the Minister to consider the
granting of a basic petrol allowance to country
solicitors and pointed out the difficulties under
which they had to carry on business owing to the
absence of travelling facilities. He had recently
received a reply from the Department stating
that the petrol position had not improved and
that the Minister was, therefore, unable to grant
the facilities requested at the present time.
CURRENT TOPICS,
Solicitor's Lien where acting for both Mortgagor
and Mortgagee.
IN a case which was recently heard by the English
Chancery Division the Court decided a point of
interest to the profession which has been the
subject of a number of conflicting decisions. The
plaintiff was a mortgagor in an action to redeem
his mortgage and the defendants were the legal
personal representatives of the deceased
mortgagee. One of the defendants was also the
solicitor who had drawn up the mortgage, having
acted on that occasion for both mortgagor and
mortgagee. The solicitor-defendant retained the
title deeds in his possession and continued so to
retain them after the death of the mortgagee,
of whose will he was an acting executor. He
therefore stood at various times in the capacities
of (a) solicitor for mortgagor and mortgagee
severally
(b)
solicitor for both of them and (c) one
of the executors of the deceased mortgagee. He
claimed to hold a retaining lien against the
mortgagor over the documents of title for the
costs of the mortgage transaction and other
monies due by the mortgagor, all of which had
become statute barred. The Court held that once
the solicitor became an executor of the deceased
mortgagee he ceased to hold the title deeds as
solicitor, and thereafter held them as executor
jointly with his co-defendants. A solicitor con
notes a client and a man cannot be solicitor for
himself. The Court further expressed the view
that even if the mortgagee had survived, or if the
solicitor-defendant had not been one of his
executors, his lien would have been lost by reason
of his having acted in the capacity of solicitor
for both mortgagor and mortgagee, even though
the title deeds never left his office. (Barratt
v.
Gough—Thomas and others 61 T.L.R.534).
Documents and Pictures (Regulation of Export)
Act, 1945.
THE short title of the above-mentioned Act which
has become law is "An Act to regulate the export
of documents and pictures with the object of
preserving records of those which are of national,
historical, genealogical or literary interest."
The word "document" is defined in the Act as
including any writing, drawing, map, chart, plan,
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