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trie appointment of the new trustees should be
embodied in a deed to be executed by all parties.
The power of appointment under the original trust
deed was vested in the trustees or their survivor.
A difference of opinion arose as to whether the
solicitor for the plaintiff beneficiaries or the solicitor
for the defendant trustees should prepare the deed
embodying
the consent,
the retirement of the
existing trustees and the appointment of the new
trustees. The Committee reported that on the facts
before them they were of opinion that the solicitors
for the retiring trustees were entitled to prepare
the deed embodying the appointment of the new
trustees, the release to the retiring trustees and the
other terms of the consent, they being the solicitors
having the custody and control of the documents
of title, and referred to Opinion No. 88 of the
Council, printed at page 439 of the current Calendar.
The Council adopted the report.
Applications under Section 47
THE Council considered seven applications from
solicitors for permission to take out their practising
certificates.
Six - applications were
granted on
payment of the current duty and one application
was granted subject to payment of two years' arrears
in addition to the current duty.
Apprentices' Applications
A NUMBER of apprentices' applications were con–
sidered and dealt with.
HALF-YEARLY GENERAL
MEETING
A HALF-YEARLY General Meeting of the Society
was held on Thursday, May i6th, in the Solicitors'
Buildings, Four Courts. The President, Mr. Daniel
O'Connell, in the chair.
The notice convening
the meeting was, by
permission of the meeting, taken as read. The
Secretary
read
the minutes of the Half-yearly
General Meeting held on November z6th, 1945,
which were signed by the President.
The President nominated the following members
of the Society as Scrutineers 'of the Ballot for the
Council
to be held on November 2ist, 1946:
Messrs. J. R. McC. Blakeney, Desmond J. Collins,
T. Jackson, Brendan P. McCormack, and Roderick
J. Tierney.
The President, addressing
the meeting, said:
" Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since, we last met in General Meeting in Novem–
ber there have gone from amongst us many members
well known to most of us, and it is with regret that
I have to record their passing and wish to express
to their relatives our feelings of sympathy in- their
bereavement. The following solicitors have died
during the past six months :
Michael Dorgan, William
J. Barry,
James
McAuliffe, James J. O'Shee, Ambrose Steen, John
Minton, John J. Kennedy, David E. Ferguson,
G. Douglas Scott, A. M. Healy, George H. Parkes,
Christopher O'Connell Fitzsimon, John M. Maxwell,
Dermot J. O'Rourke, James C. Parke, Henry
Lemass, Patrick M. O'Leary, Harry Bruce Bell,
Michael J. Bowers, Albany Fetherstonhaugh, Her–
bert W. Franck, Ernest W. Harris, Michael A.
Humphries, Robert C. Bannister, Aidan E.
R.
MacCabe, and Austin Crean.
Our
relations with
the various Government
-
Departments with whom we have to deal have been
very satisfactory.
In the interviews and discussions
which have taken place between our appointed
members and Ministers of State and the Secretaries
of public departments it is but proper to record
that they have in all cases shown a desire to be help–
ful and have met our wishes in most of our
submissions. They have always been ready
to
consider carefully any suggestions or criticisms
which we thought it necessary to make.
In par–
ticular I would like to pay tribute to the manner
in which the Registrar of Titles has met us on the
various points of difficulty in practice under dis–
cussion. Not all our proposals have been accepted,
but agreement was reached on many major issues
involved.
Steps have been taken at the suggestion of the
Council to improve the facilities for the sale of
Land Registry stamps at the Ormond Quay Post
Office during Vacation periods when the Stamp
Office in the Four Courts is closed. We have also
urged, arising out of the decision in Sheridan's
Case, which you will recollect resulted
in
the
discontinuance of charging Land Registry fees in
the case of transmissions on death, that any fees
paid subsequent to the ist June, 1945, should be
refunded to
the parties concerned
in cash.
It
was understood that the Department proposed to
refund such fees paid after September not in cash
but by way of allowing credit to the solicitor
concerned against fees payable on future dealings
either in respect of the same lands or on different
property.
It was felt that this method would give
rise to very serious inconvenience in the matter of
book-keeping, and it was proposed to the Registrar
of Titles that any refunds made should be given in
cash, and,
furthermore,
that
fees
so
refunded
should be made as from the ist June, 1945, being
approximately the date of the institution of the
proceedings before the Court in Sheridan's Case
No Departmental decision has yet been given on
IO