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The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
[MAY, 1918
Recent Decision Affecting Solicitors.
(A'otes of decisions, whether in re-ported or
unreported cases, of interest to Solicitors,
are invited from Members'?)
CHANCERY DIVISION (ENGLAND).
(Before EYE, J.).
In re
BROWN WAGE
v.
SMITH.
April n, 1918.
Will
Solicitor
Trustee
Power to charge—Profit—Costs—Legacy
—Insufficient estate—Abatement.
By her will, made in 1916, the testatrix-
appointed the plaintiffs her executors and
trustees, one of whom, W. D., was a Solicitor,
and she gave a large number of pecuniary
legacies with a direction that they should be
paid in full, with all duties thereon, out of
her residuary estate in priority to any other
legacies given by her will. She then gave a
number of charitable legacies, also free of all
duties, which were to be paid out of the
j
residuary estate, and finally, a gift of £10,000
j
to the trustees of Westfield College, upon
certain trusts, and the residue of her estate
j
to Westfield College. The will contained a
j
declaration by the testatrix that every trustee
of her will who might happen to be a Solicitor
should be entitled to make and be paid all
usual professional charges for advice given
and business done in reference to her will.
The total estate of the testatrix amounted
approximately to £56,000, and the total
legacies,
including
that of
£10,000,
to
£63,000,
so
that an abatement became
necessary. A summons was issued by the
trustees
asking,
inter alia,
whether
the
charitable legacies and duties and the sum
of £10,000
to
the
trustees of Westfield
College, and the profit costs payable to the
plaintiff, W. D., under the power to charge,
abated proportionally and
part passu.
The
question as to the abatement of the profit
costs of the Solicitor was the main question
argued.
Eve, J., after holding that the legacy duties
must be added to the charitable legacies and
all abate rateably, said that the point as to
the abatement of the profit costs of the Soli–
citor was concluded by authority. The effect
of declaration in the will enabling the Solicitor
to charge for professional services was a
bequest to him of a legacy conditional upon
his doing the work, the amount of the legacy
would be ascertained when the work had
been done and the profit costs arrived at.
It was nothing more or less than a bequest to
the Solicitor of that sum, ultimately to b^e
ascertained. His Lordship did not consider
that in the case of an insufficient estate such
a legacy stood on a different footing from
other legacies in the same degree. Therefore,
having regard to the principle underlying the
decision
In re White
[1898], i Ch. 297, he
must hold that this legacy abated pro–
portionally with the charitable legacies.
(The Weekly Notes,
118 [1918].)
Trinity Sittings Lectures, 1918.
LECTURES will be delivered to the Senior
Class upon the following dates :
June 4, 7, n, 14, 18, 21, 25, 28.
Lectures will be delivered to the Junior
Class upon the following dates :
June 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, 27.
Calendar of the Incorporated Law
Society,
1918,
'TpHE Calendar and Law Directory,
*
published by the Society for 1918,
can be obtained in the Secretary's Office,
price 3s., or by post 3s. 5d.
ALL communications connected with THE
GAZETTE (other than advertisements) should
be addressed to the Secretary of the Society,
Solicitors' Buildings, Four Courts, Dublin. -^