The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1991

Lee should then have considered

whether he could properly tell Mr.

Edwards anything at all. His

Lordship had no evidence that

those matters crossed Mr. Lee's

mind.

Solicitor contributory negligence

was established at 50 per cent. The

court held that the defendant

solicitor was liable to the third

plaintiff for £12,250.

No Privilege for

Company Officer

Vinelott J of the (UK) Chancery

Division in Re

Jeffrey S. Levitt Ltd

(The Times Law Report,

November

6, 1991) held that an officer of an

insolvent company, if summoned to

appear before the court to be

examined under section 236 of the

(UK)

Insolvency Act, 1986

could

not refuse to answer questions on

the ground t hat they mi ght

incriminate him, because he was

under an overriding statutory duty

to assist the receivers in their

functions.

Vinelott J so held in ordering such

an examination of Mr Jeffrey S.

Levitt, formerly the controlling

director of Jeffrey S. Levitt Ltd, to

be resumed before a judge of the

Chancery Division.

The Court stated t hat the

Insolvency Acts of 1985 and 1986

were the outcome of a radical

overhaul of both individual and

corporate insolvency law following

the

Report

of the

Review

Committee on Insolvency Law and

Practice

(Cmnd 8558), with special

reference to the need to discourage

insolvent trading and to disqualify

delinquent directors.

The court considered that if section

236 of the (UK)

Insolvency Act,

1986

was read in the context of

sections 234 and 235, it was clear

that those sections established a

class of persons on whom was laid

a duty to furnish all relevant

information to such as the present

receivers; so Mr. Levitt had not been

entitled to invoke the privilege.

Injury Too Remote From

Employer

The Court of Appeal (England and

Wales) (Mustill, Mann and

Farquharson LJJ)

(The Times

Law

Report of October 23 1991) held

that an employer in England who

sent an employee to work as a

computer consultant in Saudi

Arabia was not to be held liable for

an injury to the employee resulting

from a fall on defective flooring at

his workplace there.

The Court held that although

circumstances might well require

home-based employers to satisfy

themselves as to the safety of

foreign sites, it would not be

reasonable to hold reliable

employers in breach of their duty

of care because of a hazard

created by others some 8,000

miles away.

Farquharson LJ for the court said

that both the trial judge and

counsel for the employee cast far

too high a responsibility on the

employers. The site occupiers and

the general contractors were

reliable companies and aware of

their responsibility for the safety of

workers on site. The suggestion

that the home-based employers

had any responsibility for the daily

events of a site in Saudi Arabia had

an air of unreality. It might be that

in some cases where a number of

employees were going to work on

a foreign site or where one or two

employees were called on to work

there for a considerable period of

time, an employer might be required

to inspect the site and satisfy

himself that the occupiers were

conscious of their obligations

concerning the safety of people

working there. But one could not

prescribe any rules in that context.

It would depend on the facts of

individual cases.

The evidence in the case before the

court did not show that the

accident was caused by any breach

of duty on the employers' part.

Eamonn Hall

The Medico-Legal

Society of Ireland

Programme for Winter/Spring

1992

1. Thursday 23rd January, 1992:

Dr. Anne Clancy

- "The Presidential Address"

2. Thursday 27th February, 1992:

Professor

Michael

Gibney,

Department of Clinical Nutrition,

Trinity College, Dublin

- "The Right to Eat Wrongly"

3. Thursday 26th March, 1992:

Professor John Harbison, State

Pathologist

- "The Sevilla Project"

Lectures take place at 8.30p.m. at

the United Service Club, St.

Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, by kind

permission.

Members and their guests are

invited to join the Council and guest

speakers for dinner at the Club at

6p.m. for 6.30p.m. on the evening

of each lecture. Members intending

to dine must communicate, not

later than the previous day, with

Miss

Mary MacMurrough Murphy,

B.L. at 2 Wh i t ebeam Road,

Clonskeagh, Dublin 14 (Telephone

269428Q) or at the Law Library,

Four Courts, Dublin 7 (Telephone

720622).

Membership of the Society is open

to members of the medical and

legal professions and to others

especially interested in medico-

legal matters. The current annual

subscription is £10.00. Member-

ship proposal forms and full details

may be obtained f rom

Mary

MacMurrough Murphy

at the above

address.

•

I or a lull range ol Company

Secretarial S i n ict's contact:

KOMSKC L IM1T11)

17 Katlitai nham

O.K

Tirimiri'. Dublin 6\\.

Icl I a\: 903237

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