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Condition of Country Courthouses

THE following resolution was passed, and

the

Secretary was directed to send a copy thereof to

the appropriate Government departments.

" That in the opinion of the Council of the

Incorporated Law Society of Ireland the appro

priate Ministers of State should be asked to intro

duce legislation to provide that:—

(a)

The provision and maintenance of Court

houses should be the duty of the Com

missioners of Public Works, and be a

national charge under the direction of the

Department of Justice.

(b)

That the present District Court areas should

be revised, and enlarged with a view

to

reducing the number of Courthouses re

quired in local areas."

Petrol for Solicitors

THE Secretary reported that he had received a letter

from the Department of Industry and Commerce

stating that additional allowances of petrol would

be granted to solicitors following representations

made by the Society.

A note of the additional

allowances is printed below.

Less than 10 H.P.

... 30 gallons per month

(including basic)

io H.P. and less than

... 36

16 H.P.

16 H.P. and upwards ... 50

Petrol licences for the increased allowances will

be issued to solicitors on application to the Depart

ment of Industry and Commerce, Petrol Section,

Griffith Barracks, Dublin, giving the make, reg

istration number and horsepower of the car.

STAMP DUTY ON LEASES

IN the case of John Frederick O'Sullivan appellant,

Revenue

Commissioners

respondents

(not yet

reported), Mr. Justice Martin Maguire held that the

increased stamp duty of 5 per cent, for nationals and

25 per cent, for non-nationals imposed by Section

13 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1947, does not apply

to property which is disposed of by means of a lease

at a rent and also a fine.

Property so leased will be

subject to a duty of only i per cent, (or io/-%

in cases where the appropriate certificate is given),

on the fine in addition to the stamp duty on the

rent, whether or not the lessee is a citizen of Ireland.

PARTICULARS DELIVERED

REPRESENTATIONS were received from the Dublin

Solicitors' Bar Association

that the

practice of

vendors' solicitors of handing over to the purchasers'

solicitors the P.D. form and asking them to have

the stamp impressed should be discontinued.

It

was pointed out, that whereas obtaining the P.D.

stamp was formerly a simple operation, it has now

become more complicated by reason of the require

ments of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1947, and it was

suggested by the Bar Association that the vendor's

solicitor should himself have the P.D. stamp im

pressed before handing over the deed to the pur

chaser's solicitor.

In the view of the Council of the Society it is not

part of the duty of the purchaser's solicitor to have

this

stamp

impressed. The vendor's

solicitor

receives payment for it and he is not entitled, as of

right, to ask the purchaser's solicitor to act as his

unpaid agent in this matter.

It is open to individual

solicitors to make their own arrangements about

the P.D. stamp on grounds of convenience, but

a solicitor acting for a purchaser who requires the

stamp to be impressed before the deed is handed

over cannot be said to be acting either illegally or

discourteously. As this matter was raised by the

Dublin Bar Association, and not by any of the

provincial associations, the above note is to be taken

as applicable only to practice in the city of Dublin.

PROFESSIONAL ITEMS

House-agents' commission

THERE have been two decided cases in England

recently on the much litigated question of the

interpretation of agency contracts between vendors

of property and house-agents, giving rise to claims

for commission against the owners of property.

It was laid down in Luxor (Eastbourne) Ltd.

v.

Cooper (1941 A.C. 108) and Jones

v.

Lowe (61

T.L.R. 53) that in such agency contracts the word

" purchaser " bears a more restricted meaning than

that usually assigned to it. A contract drawn by

an agent binding the owner of property to pay a

commission " in the event of my introducing a

purchaser" was held to mean a purchaser who

actually signed a binding contract, and where the

negotiations went off owing to the action of the

vendor, although the purchaser was willing

to

proceed at the stipulated price, no commission was

payable.

In the recent case of Bennett and Partners

v.

Millett (1948 2 All. E.R. 929) a different form of

words was used.

The house-agents wrote to the

defendant: " We confirm that in the event of our

introducing a purchaser who is able and willing

to complete the transaction our commission will be

in accordance with the recognised scale," and the

Court held that this letter constituted the agency

contract. The agents

introduced a prospective

purchaser at the stipulated price who at all times was