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GAZETTE
NOVEMBER 1977
Dublin Solicitors' Bar Association
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
At the Annual General Meeting of the Association,
held at Blackhall Place, Dublin (by kind permission of the
Incorporated Law Society of Ireland), the following
Council was elected for the ensuing year:
President: Thomas Jackson.
Vice-President: John F. Buckley.
Hon. Secretary: Andrew F. Smyth.
Hon-Treasurer: Miss Mary Cantrell.
Other members of Council: Miss Clare Cusack, Mrs.
Moya Quinlan, Stephen Maher, Vivian Mathews, Charles
Meredith, Herbert Mulligan, Rory O'Donnell, Colm
Price, Laurence Shields.
Hon. Auditors: Rory O'Connor and Peter McMahon.
The Meeting was addressed by Mr. Bruce St. John
Blake, President, Incorporated Law Society of Ireland,
who took the opportunity of mentioning to Dublin
colleagues various matters affecting the profession,
including in particular the revised system of legal
education due to come into operation, whereby Legal
Apprenticeship would not commence until after a
University degree had been obtained and would be linked
to a system of practical education through the Law
Society.
In this general context, the President also referred to
the fact that the Law Society's new premises in the former
Kings Hospital School at Blackhall Place had been
brought into use this Autumn, with considerable benefit to
the profession. He stressed that contributions were still
required in order to finance the very considerable debt
incurred in this respect.
The Meeting discussed a number of matters of
importance to Dublin Solicitors, including the present
deplorable constions at Rathfarnham District Courthouse
and the difficulties created for the profession by the vast
backlog of pending litigation, both Criminal and Civil, in
the Dublin Circuit Court.
The Meeting also heard that the Association had
arranged a Seminar on Office Management and Costing,
to be held in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, on
20th January 1978 and that the Association's Annual
Dinner would take place at Jury's Hotel, Ballsbridge, on
Friday, 3rd March 1978, on the eve of the International
Rugby fixture.
BUILDER, VENDORS AND LESSORS
The first publication of the recently established Law
Reform Commission was the subject of a discussion
evening organised by the Association's "Activities
Committee" on Wednesday, 5th October 1977.
The publication, entitled "The Law Relating to the
Liability of Builders, Vendors, and Lessors", deals with
the present substantially unprotected position of
purchasers and lessees and seeks to redress the present
imbalance in favour of Builders, Vendors and Lessors.
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Professor Bryan McMahon, architect of the document
described briefly the foundation and general purpose of
the Law Reform Commission, established under its own
Act of 1975, and said that its present priorities are in the
areas of Family Law and the Law relating to Builders,
Vendors and Lessors. Professor McMahon joined the
Commission in January 1977 and has, in the opinion of
the writer, produced in a very short space of time a
remarkably well researched and well considered
document. Professor McMahon described it himself as a
"working paper" and indicated that he hoped that its
consideration by the Solicitors' profession might produce
some further useful views.
Mr. Michael Greene, Secretary to the Irish House
Builders' Federation (I.H.B.F.) then spoke at some length
on the I.H.B.F.'s views of the Law Reform Commission's
publication and, understandably, argued that the present
position of the purchaser from the House Building
Industry was not as bad as the Law Reform
Commission alleged. He made the point, also made in the
Law Reform Commission's publication that the
considerable body of recent Case Law on the subject was
largely in favour of purchasers and lessees and he said
that the I.H.B.F. considered that the trend of the Courts,
coupled with the proposed introduction of its own
Scheme, designed to protect purchasers from its
members, between them rendered unnecessary any such
protective legislation as was proposed by the
Commission.
Mr. Greene said that the I.H.B.F. Scheme was
intended to be operative from 1st January 1978, and that
it had been in the process of formulation since 1968 —
substantially pre-dating the setting up of the Law Reform
Commission!
In Mr. Greene's view, to legislate on the relationship of
Builders, Vendors and Lessors with their purchasers and
Lessees could well have had the effect of slowing down the
present trend of the Courts and that the increased cost of
administering the proposed legislation on the subject
could outweigh the social benefit which such legislation
might achieve. He recommended that the Commission
should, as part of its brief, consider the economic
consequences of its proposals.
Professor McMahon, in reply, put the views of the Law
Reform Commission on the urgent necessity for some
increased protection for purchasers and lessees, and not
merely purchasers from the I.H.B.F. He suggested that in
fact the purchasers and lessees of property were in a poor
position, when compared with other consumers. The
Commission feels strongly that as a house is probably the
largest and most important purchase in a person's life, the
purchaser of a house is entitled to reasonable protection
both from poor materials and workmanship and from the
financial instability of builders and vendors.
Professor McMahon referred in particular to the
present anomalous situation in which a Builder can gain
immunity from the consequence of his own omissions
merely by making himself into a Vendor. Professor
McMahon postulated by way of example, circumstances
in which a Builder invited a member of the public to view
a house which he had built, with a view to sale. If, during
such viewing, plaster were to fall on the head of the
viewer, then the Builder would clearly be liable in