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DATES OF PRELIMINARY AND FINAL
EXAMINATIONS.
FROM and including 1958 onwards the Preliminary
and Final Examinations will be held during the
Whitsun and Long Vacations, instead of Easter and
Long Vacations as at present. The dates of the other
examinations will be unchanged.
UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN
Trinity College.
SCHOOLS OF COMMERCE, PUBLIC ADMINI
STRATION AND SOCIAL STUDIES.
APPLICATIONS are invited for the post of part-time
lecturer in Industrial Law and Commercial Law.
Terms of appointment may be obtained from the
Registrar of the School of Commerce, who will
receive applications under i$th July, 1957.
DECISIONS OF PROFESSIONAL
INTEREST
Attempt by solicitor to pervert justice.
On 3ist May after just over three hours' retire
ment a jury at the Central Criminal Court found
James Austin Owens, aged 30, of Hendon, N.W.,
Guilty of attempting to pervert the course of
public justice and Norman Harry Beach, aged 43,
solicitor, of Kilburn High Road, N.W., Guilty of
aiding and abetting him. Beach was sentenced to
12 months' imprisonment and Owens to six month's
imprisonment. Beach and Owens were solicitor
and client, and both had pleaded Not Guilty to
the charges against them.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on charges of
conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.
Mr. Justice German discharged the jury from
giving a verdict on that count.
Owens, according to the prosecution, was tried
at Middlesex Sessions on November ijth on a
charge of being under the influence of drink when
in charge of a car. He was convicted and sentenced.
Beach was Owen's solicitor, and it was alleged
that they conspired to take steps to prevent wit
nesses from identifying Owens as he stood in
the dock. When he appeared in the Sessions Court,
it was stated, Owens wore a hired black suit with
striped trousers and wore a wig.
Mr. Justice Gorman's summing-up lasted five
and a quarter hours.
When passing sentence on Beach the Judge said :
" Your position is, of course, different from that
of Owens. You are a solicitor of the Supreme
Court charged peculiarly and particularly by virtue
of that position with doing nothing to pervert
the course of public justice. .
.
Of course a solici
tor is entitled to be zealous but the finding of
the jury means not merely that you have been over-
zealous but that you have in fact, as a solicitor,
aided and abetted the commission of the offence
of perverting the course of public justice. I think
in considering your case I am entitled, and I do,
to pay regard to the whole of the circumstances,
but you must realize that it is really quite dreadful
for a solicitor to act in the way in which the jury
have decided that you acted.
(R.
v.
Owens and Beach—
Times,
ist June, 1957).
A purchaser allowed into possession before completion
is not liable to pay interest; because vendor was
" in wilful default " in delaying to release a mortgage.
A contract for the sale of premises in Fairview,
Dublin contained the usual clause providing for
payment of interest by the purchaser if from any
cause whatever other than the .wilful default of the
vendor, the purchase was not completed on the
date fixed for completion. The purchaser was
allowed into possession under a caretaker's agree
ment. Owing to the difficulty in communicating
with a mortgagee who resided in Cairo, for the
purpose of releasing a mortgage on the property,
the purchase was not completed until more than
a year after the date fixed for completion.
Shannon J. held that the vendor was in wilful
default, as he knew or should have known the
position as to the delay in releasing the mortgage
before he entered into the contract, and therefore
the purchaser was not liable to the vendor for
interest due to laches.
(O'Byrne
v.
Robinson (1955-56) Ir. Jur. Rep. 46).
The equitable lien of a solicitor conducting a criminal
appeal takes priority over the debt of a judgment-
creditor.
The costs of an appeal in the case of " The
People
v.
Barry Blogh." (reported at 90. I.L.T.R.
75) were awarded by the Court of Criminal Appeal
to the solicitor of the successful appellant. The
appellant had left the jurisdiction, before the judg
ment of the Court, without paying his costs. The
amount of taxed costs came to £203
45.
6d. and
the Temple Press had on February i7th, 1956,
obtained judgment against Blogh for £230 i8s. 3d.
and costs.
The Temple Press, hearing of the
taxation in favour of Blogh, obtained a conditional
order of garnishee, and moved to have the order
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