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JANUARY, 1919]
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Irelaad.
43
New Members.
THE following have joined the Society since
October, 1918 :—
Terence Byrne, Maryborough.
John W. Callan, Dundalk.
Arthur S. Coulter, Dundalk.
Patrick J. Kennedy, Carrickmacross.
Philip H. I. O'Reilly, 3 Upper Sackville
Street, Dublin.
New Solicitors
THE following were admitted during Novem
ber and December, 1918 :—
Name
Served Apprenticeship to
John W. Bell, Uownpatriek
Bell, Harry Bruce
B.A., T.C.D,
Clerke, William J.
'
...
Conroy, John Stephen
FitzGerald, Edward,
B.A., N.U.I.
Morrin, John Joseph
Wilfrid
Mulligan, Patrick T. J.
O'Connell, John Aloysius
O'Connor,
James G.,
B.A., N.U.I.
Porter, Robert Kerr
...
Sullivan, Barry I.
Wilson, John Bernard
Maxwell
Patrick O'Leary, Bantry
George Nicolls and George
Lynch, Galway
James Rogers, Tullamore
John J. McDonald, Dublin
Christopher Friery, Dublin
H. McNeile McCormick,
Sligo
Henry F. Brenan, Tulla–
more
Robert J. Porter, Belfast
James Nunan, Mallow
Arthur E. Bradley, Dublin
Demobilization
" ONE MAN BUSINESSES."
THOSE members of the profession at present
engaged in either Naval or Military Service
who, previous to joining such service, were
carrying on their profession alone, and not
in partnership with, or in the employment of,
any other Solicitor, and who now desire
immediate
release
in
order
to
resume
carrying on their business, should communi
cate with the Secretary of the Society.
Recent Legal Decisions
Mortmain
—
Bequest to the College of Surgeons
—Question of Charitable Gift.
An interesting and instructive case on the
Law of Mortmain and Charity came before
the Court of Appeal recently in
Miley v.
Attorney-General (reported (1918)
1 I.R.,455).
A Testatrix by her Will bequeathed a sum
of £500 to the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland. She died a few days after making
the Will. Her property consisted of real
estate valued at about £5,800, and personal
estate valued at £417. The Law of Mortmain
in Ireland, which is essentially different from
the Statutes on the same subject in England,
is substantially contained in the 16th Section
of the Charitable Donations and Bequests
Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict., c. 97), which enacts
that " No donation, devise or bequest for
" pious or charitable uses in Ireland shall be
" valid to create or convey any estate in
" lands, tenements or hereditaments for such
" uses, unless the deed, will, or other instru-
" ment containing the same shall be duly
" executed three calendar months at least
" before the death of the person executing
" the same, and unless every such deed or
" instrument, not being a will, shall be duly
" registered in the Office for registering deeds
" in the City of Dublin within three calendar
" months after the execution thereof."
If,
therefore, the gift to the College of Surgeons
was to be regarded as a charity, the legacy
was practically lost. There is no clear-cut
definition in law of a charity, but a number
of charitable uses are set out in an English
Statute, 43 Eliz., c. 4, which has its counter
part in the Irish Statute, 10 Chas. I., sen. 3,
c. 1.
In a judgment which may be regarded
as a classic on the subject
(Commissioners of
Income Tax v. Pemsel,
1891, A.C. 531), Lord
Macnaghten reduces legal charitable uses to
four principal
divisions :—(1)
Relief
of
poverty ;
(2) Advancement of education ;
(3) Advancement of religion ;
(4) Trusts for
other purposes beneficial to the community,
not falling under any of the preceding heads.
On the evidence before it, the Court of Appeal
found that the College of Surgeons under its
Charter existed for a two-fold object :—
(a)
For the advancement of education in its
specialised form of the science of surgery ;
and
(b)
for the discipline and general interests
of its members ;
and accordingly that the
bequest was not of a charitable nature within
the meaning of the Statute, and that the
bequest was, therefore, payable out of the
general estate of the Testatrix. The Court
indicated that the bequest might have been
impressed as a charity if it had been given
to the College for the exclusive purpose of
advancement of education.