165 / 462
g a z e t t e
april 1991
Cooke -v- Walsh
appeal that
in his judgment Mr Justice
Griffin said:
" . . . the learned trial Judge
multiplied the entire of the
rate of wages (£115) by the
full multiplier Used by him. In
my view this is not correct,
as it is the "take home pay"
and not the gross pay that
should be used as the
multiplicand"
/11984] ILRM
208, 217).
Mr Justice McCarthy in his
judgment in the same case in
relation to the deduction of tax
from gross wages said:
" . . . there
was
no
reference, whatever, to this
aspect of the case in the
evidence, the submissions,
the relevant portion of the
judgment, nor, indeed, in
the grounds of appeal. . ."
/11984] ILRM 208, 221).
My own recollection is
that in the particular circum-
stances of that case it made
no difference.
Tax, in my opinion, cannot
be ignored.
Section 5 of the Finance
Act, 1990, provided that in
the case of a person who is
permanently and totally
incapacitated by reason of
mental or physical injury
from maintaining himself,
any income arising from the
investment of damages is
exempt from tax.
6. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
6.1
Life expectancy
A popular misconception is
that an actuary bases his
ca l cu l a t i ons on the life
expectancy of a person. This
manifested itself in the
Auty
-v- National Coal Board
case
([1985] 1 All ER 930, CA) to
which I have already referred.
In thd introduction to their
paper, Owen and Shier refer to
the concern expressed by
Stewart Lyon, at the Institute
of Actuaries' Annual General
Meeting in June 1984, with
the judgment in the same case
given by Lord Justice Waller
who erroneously stated that
the expectation of life was an
average and assumed that
everybody lived to that age
and then died.
Those of us who are used
to giving evidence in Court, no
doubt, have met, many a
time, the incomprehension
expressed
when
giving
different values for £1 per
week to age 65 and life for a
30 year old plaintiff whose life
expectancy is reduced to 25
years. The belief is that that
person will be dead at age 55.
The value of £1 per week for
life is often taken to mean the
value of £1 per week for a
[ X Z j L / LEGAL
Th e TOP DRAWER
Your Client List is one of your firm's most valuable assets. As your firm grows, there is a danger that clients are forgotten
about in 'Dead Files' when matters are closed. Your clients do not die when the matter is closed, unless you kill them in the
darkness of your 'Dead Files' room.
The TOP DRAWER is a software product to enable you to keep an efficient index to all your firm's files. The TOP
DRÁWER is aptly named as it is in the top drawer that you put things that you want to keep handy. It is designed with two
main objectives in mind. The first is to enable you to quickly find details of clients and their matters. The other is to allow
you to find matters and clients that belong to certain groups, e.g., all clients who availed of Section 23 relief, or all clients who
have no will, are over 50 years and have children and property. This is a very valuable feature in providing a better service to
your clients as laws, rules and regulations change. It also serves by keeping clients very much alive as far as your firm is
concerned.
You can use The TOP DRAWER to manage your undertakings and to keep registers for wills, contracts, deeds, and any other
documents that you have for safe keeping. After using The TOP DRAWER for only a few days, users commented:-
"I've been lookingfor a product like thisfor years" - "It's exactly what we wanted"
The TOP DRAWER runs on IBM Compatible PC's using MS-DOS Ver. 3.0 or later. It is multi-user so if you have a
network, the whole firm can use it The TOP DRAWER costs only £295 plus V.A.T. At that price can you afford to be
without The TOP DRAWER?
Order from (please specify 3 V2" or 5 V4" floppy disk):-
TOPSOFT Ltd.,
1 St. James's Place, Fermoy, Co. Cork.
Tel: 025 - 32344 Fax: 025 -32262
147