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THE HON. TIMOTHY SULLIVAN

THE following letter has been received from the

Hon. Timothy Sullivan in reply to the resolution of

the Council on the occasion of his retirement from

the office of Chief Justice:

Shamrock Hill,

Stillorgan Road, Dublin,

dth May,

1946.

Dear Mr. Secretary,

I must ask you to excuse my delay in acknowledg–

ing the receipt of the resolution adopted by the

Council of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland

on my retirement.

Will you convey to the Council my deep apprecia–

tion of the far too generous terms in which they

refer to my work as Chief Justice. The kindly

relations which always existed between us were due

in large measure to the assistance unfailingly given

to me by the Council and by the solicitors whom

they represent, and I am glad to avail myself of this

opportunity to express my. gratitude to both.

I

thank the Council for their good wishes, and I

thank you, Mr. Secretary, for so kindly associating

yourself with the resolution.

Yours sincerely,

TIMOTHY SULLIVAN.

LEGAL TEXT BOOKS

THE Council have recently considered the difficul–

ties experienced by solicitors' apprentices in studying

for the Intermediate and Final Examinations of the

Society owing to the present scarcity of legal text

books. On account of the changes effected by

English legislation in subjects such as Real Pro–

perty, Conveyancing and Company Law since the

setting up of the Irish Free State, the modern

editions of English text books on these subjects

are not appropriate to this country.

Students,

consequently, must rely upon the older editions.

These editions have been gradually going out of

print and are now becoming very difficult to procure,

and the Secretary frequently receives letters from

apprentices asking where they can obtain copies of

the books on the courses.

Some years ago the

Government was approached by the Council and

requested to subsidise the publication of legal text–

books, but no step has been taken in this direction.

Even if it were now decided to undertake the

publication of legal text books in this country a

considerable interval of time would elapse before

any law books could appear on the market, and

in the interval the difficulties in the way of appren–

tices preparing

for

the Society's

examinations

would continue to be very great. The Council

feel that the responsibility lies upon them to take

all possible steps to remedy the situation, and they

have therefore decided to purchase as many copies

of the appropriate editions of the text books as are

available with the object of lending them to appren–

tices preparing for the examinations.

It has been

decided to circularise the profession individually

as there may be a number of solicitors who will

be prepared to sell law books to the Society for the

purpose of the scheme, and the Council hope that

the response from the profession will enable them

to overcome in part, at least, the present difficulties.

DECISIONS OF INTEREST TO THE

PROFESSION

THERE is a number of recently

reported cases

either affecting the solicitors' profession or dealing

with matters which, although not affecting solicitors

personally, fall within the peculiar province of a

solicitor's practice. The

first of these cases

Barratt

v.

Gough, Thomas & ors. was referred

to in the number of the GAZETTE for November

last and is now noted as it has been brought to the

English Court of Appeal from the Chancery Division

(6z T.L.R. 40). The plaintiff in the proceedings

was a mortgagor seeking redemption of his mortgage

and the defendants were

the executors of the

deceased mortgagee. The first defendant was also

a solicitor who on the occasion of the mortgage

had acted for both mortgagor and mortgagee.

At the date of the redemption proceedings he was a

creditor of the mortgagor for the costs of the

mortgage and for certain advances, all of which had

become

statute-barred.

The defendants

in

the

redemption proceedings did not dispute the plain–

tiff's right to redeem the mortgage.

The sole

question raised in the proceedings was whether or

not the first-named defendant was entitled to a lien

on the title deeds which he had retained all along

for the amount due to him by the plaintiff mortgagor .

on foot of the costs and moneys advanced.

It was

decided by the parties that the most convenient

method of having this matter determined was to

raise it in the redemption proceedings, and accord–

ingly the solicitor defendant applied to the Court

for an order declaring that he was entitled to a

retaining lien on the title deeds. His application

was refused by'the High Court.

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

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