131 / 338
for the purpose of registering deeds, it must hence
forth be in writing, and, for the purposes of rents
and profits, it will relate back to the time of death.
A beneficiary may require the personal represen
tatives to register an assent or a conveyance in the
Registry of Deeds at his expense (Section 21).
Section 87(2) of the Local Registration of Title
Act, 1891 is henceforth amended to include personal
property and compulsorily registered land, as well as
pure real property, as formerly ; henceforth, on the
death of a sole registered full owner, or of the
survivor of several registered full owners, who are
not tenants in common, the personal representatives
shall alone be recognised by the Land Registry as
having any rights in respect of the land, and any
registered dispositions by them shall have the same
effect as if they were the registered owners. The
production of an assent or transfer from the personal
representatives in the prescribed form shall authorise
the Land Registry to register the person named in
such assent or transfer as full owner or limited
owner, but the costs of registration shall be borne
by such person. Following the decision in
Vaugban
v. Cottingham
(1958), the Land Registry is no longer
required to register any owner of land in his capacity
of personal representative. Section 21 of the Regis
tration of Title Act 1942, which now only applies
to compulsorily registered land, will henceforth be
extended to all registered land;
therefore the
Court may, after a lapse of six years from the death
of a registered owner order that an applicant for
registration be registered as full owner, provided it
is satisfied that the personal representatives of the
deceased owner are either dead or out of the juris
diction (Section 22).
The jurisdiction of the Circuit Court under Part III
of the Act shall be exercised by the Circuit Judge of
the Circuit where the land is situate (Section 23).
PART IV.—Miscellaneous
The Supreme Court and High Court (Fees) Order
1956 applied up to now only to the Principal Probate
Office in Dublin as the six District Probate Registries
were not offices established under the Court Officers
Act, 1926 ; consequently the Probate fees in Dublin
were double those in district registries ; this anomaly
is now being remedied, and henceforth a uniform
scale of fees will apply in all district registries, as
well as in Dublin (Section 24). Provisions are made
for the full exercise of the functions of the Probate
Officer in the Principal Registry in Dublin by the
Assistant Probate Office, in case of absence or
illness (Section 25).
Section 2(2)
(d)
of the Statute of Limitations, 1957
had provided that Section 86 (i) of the Registration
of Title Act 1891, which makes personal represen
tatives upon whom freehold registered land devolves
trustees for the persons beneficially entitled, is not
to be construed as making personal representatives
trustees for the purposes of that Statute ; this Section
of the Statute of Limitations 1957 is henceforth
extended to Section 7 (i) of this Act, which provides
that the personal representatives shall hold real
estate for the persons beneficially entitled ;
the
effect of this is that, for the purposes of the Statute
of Limitations personal representatives upon whom
the real estate devolves are put in the same position
as personal representatives upon whom freehold
compulsorily registered land devolves.
Personal
representatives, whether
as
respects
realty or
personalty, will in future be able to rely on the
Statute of Limitations, except where they are guilty
of fraud (Section 26).
In the Schedule, all Sections of the Probate Acts
of 1857, ^58, 1859, 1876 and 1892, providing for
the resealing of English, Scottish and colonial grants
of probate or of administration
is henceforth
repealed, as this procedure has in fact been suspended
since 1923.
NOTE.—The Administration of Estates Bill, 1957,
as passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas, together
with a very useful explanatory memorandum, may
be obtained from the Government Publications
Sales Office, Arcade, G.P.O., Henry Street, Dublin,
for i/-, or 1/2, including postage.
LEARNING THE LAW
In publishing his
Learning
the Law
in 1945,
Professor Glanville Williams had rendered an invalu
able service to future students of English Law by
pointing out the pitfalls which the novice should
avoid and encouraging the budding lawyer to know
the proper sequence of Law Reports and cite them
properly.
The success of this new venture was
assured, but not even the most optimistic could have
foretold that six editions of this
invaluable vade-mecum
would have been published in twelve years. The
sixth edition, published in 1957, contains 60 more
pages than the earlier edition; apart from new
material, references to new books and new law
journals have been brought up to date. There are
two new excellent chapters on " the Interpretation
of Statutes " and " General Reading". This latter
chapter is a most entertaining account of the effects
of the mention of the law and of lawyers upon
English drama, fiction and biography, not to mention
jurisprudence and famous trials. The lawyer who has
laboriously mastered all the advice and learning
contained in this slim volume will know at his
fingertips the principal textbooks and other aids