788 / 822
sidered. It was ordered that the application under
Section 16 be granted, and the application under
Section 18 be not opposed.
Costs of Tenancy Agreements
THE Council considered a report from a Committee
on this matter, and directed that a note should be
published in the GAZETTE to clarify the position.
The opinion of the Council is printed on page 45
of this issue.
Guarantee of rent on the granting of a lease
UNDER
an arrangement between an
intending
lessor and an intending lessee a third party guaran
teed the rent on behalf of the lessee. Some cor
respondence and attendances, which would have
not been necessary had there been no guarantee,
took place. The lessor's solicitor claimed charges
against the lessee for such correspondence and
attendances in addition to the scale fee. The Council
decided, that as between the parties, in the absence
of any stipulation to the contrary the lessor was
not entitled to charge the lessee with the extra
expenses thereby occasioned.
Solicitor pleading Statute of Limitations
A solicitor who owned certain property jointly
with a person who was not his client, was accustomed
to strike a balance periodically with his co-owner
showing the amounts due to each on foot of rent
collected.
The co-owner was also in occupation
of portion of the property as sub-lessee at a rack
rent;
and the periodical account included the
income tax to be allowed as between the parties.
By a bona fide error the solicitor did not allow
to his co-owner the full amount of income tax
to which she was entitled, and after her death the
solicitors acting for her executors took the matter
up with the solicitor who was joint owner with
the deceased. More than six years had elapsed
since the original mistake had occurred, and the
solicitor joint-owner offered to allow six years'
refund of the income tax which had been under-
allowed. The matter was submitted to the Council
for their opinion. The Council expressed the opinion
that, except under abnormal and unusual circum
stances, a solicitor, while legally entitled to plead
the Statute of Limitations in regard to his personal
debts, should not do so as a matter of practice,
and
that,
in
this particular case,
the
statute
should not be pleaded.
Solicitors' Bill
THE Secretary read a letter from the Taoiseach,
stating that the Government have directed that
the Solicitors' Bill be drafted by the Parliamentary
Draftsman, and that he had requested the Parli
mentary Draftsman to give the matter his earliest
attention so that the Bill might be introduced in
the
Dili
as soon as possible after the Christmas
recess.
NOVEMBER 26th. The President in the chair :
Also
present: Mr. James R. Quirke, Vice-President,
Messrs. H. St. J. Blake, P. F. O'Reilly, G. A.
Overend, Roger Greene, Thomas A. O'Reilly,
William J. Norman, Niall S. Gaffney, Henry P.
Mayne, Daniel O'Connell,
John P. Carrigan,
Dermot P. Shaw, W. S. Huggard, P. R. Boyd,
John J. Dunne, J. D. O'Connell,
L.
E.
O'Dea,
J. Travers Wolfe, A. Cox.
The following was among the business
trans
acted :
Undertaking by Solicitor
THE Secretary reported that he received a query
from a solicitor for the opinion of the Council
as to his position under the following circumstances.
Acting on behalf of a purchaser who had purchased
a business as a going concern, he had received
an undertaking from the vendor's solicitors that
they would furnish a certificate from an accountant
that the turnover of the business exceeded £11,000
per annum.
The balance of the purchase money
had thereupon been placed on a deposit account
in the joint names of the solicitors for the vendor
and the purchaser. The solicitor for the purchaser
had given the following cross-undertaking :
" In
consideration of closing the sale this day I undertake
to endorse
the
deposit receipt for £4,034, in
return for the delivery of the deed of assignment
duly executed by the vendor.
I also undertake
to send you the said deed of assignment for execu
tion within one week.
This, provided I receive
the accounts required in your cross-undertaking
within the prescribed time."
The purchaser in
structed his
solicitor
that
the auctioneer
had
stated that the gross profit on the turnover was
greater than had been found to be the case, and he
instructed his solicitor not to endorse and hand
over the deposit receipt.
The Council expressed
the opinion that the undertaking given by the
solicitor for the purchaser was a personal under
taking, and that he is bound both as a matter of
professional practice and conduct, and also legally,
to endorse and hand over the deposit receipt for
the balance of the purchase money, on compliance
by the vendor's solicitors with their cross-under
taking.
Applications under Sections 16 and 18
Two applications from law clerks asking for leave
to be bound for three years as apprentices were
43