The Gazette 1961 - 64

is no suggestion that Mr. Bennett doubted his client's word or took pains to avoid discovery of a suspected truth." The learned judge had said earlier on in his judgment that it was obvious that the client only came to his solicitor and disclosed debts that were due when the creditors were pressing him so hard that he needed his solicitor's assistance to keep them at bay. (In re Dalton (a bankrupt), ex parte Herrington and Carmichael v. The Trustee 1962. 3, Weekly Law Reports, page 140.) NOTE In this country the English Act of 1914 does not apply and the Act of Bankruptcy which would probably correspond is that set out in section 21 of the Bankruptcy (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1872, as follows: " That execution issued against the debtor on any legal process for the purpose of obtaining payment of not less than £2.0 has in the case of a trader been levied by seizure and sale of his goods ". The words " and sale " should be noted. Section 46, referred to above (providing for bona fide payments or payments made in the ordinary course of business and without notice of the Bank ruptcy petition) has no counterpart in this country. The applicant, a hospital porter, was required in the course ofhis employment to be inoculated against poliomyelitis. Almost immediately after an inocula tion he developed rheumatism, which was later diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. In a claim made under the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Acts, 1946 to 1960, he alleged that this incapacity- was a personal injury which he had suffered by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. The local appeal tribunal decided that he had made out a case. The insurance officer appealed, and the deputy industrial injuries commis sioner acceded to a request for an oral hearing, in the course of which medical evidence was given and the question was raised whether the applicant's inoculation could have caused or contributed to his rheumatoid arthritis. The deputy commissioner did not at the hearing have the assistance of an assessor under reg. 22 (6) of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) (Determination of Claims and Questions) Regulations, 1948, but after the hearing and before giving his decision, he sought the assistance of a specialist in rheumatology, to whom all the case papers were submitted and to whom the deputy commssioncr afterwards read bis own notes of the j further medical evidence obtained by tribunal after bearing and before decision—functions of assessor.

oral evidence. In his decision, the deputy commis sioner recorded the advice which he had received from the specialist, which was, in effect, that, on the balance of probabilities, the applicant's rheumatoid arthritis was not caused or aggravated by his inoculation, and stated that he found against the applicant in view of this advice. No notice of the advice received was given to the parties, nor were they given an opportunity of challenging or com menting on it. On the application for certiorari to quash the decision of the deputy commissioner, Held : certiorari would be granted, because— (i) as a quasi-judicial tribunal deciding a case inter partes after an oral hearing, the deputy commis sioner was not entitled to continue privately to obtain evidence between the end of the oral hearing and his decision, without informing the parties of the advice or information so obtained, so as to give them an opportunity of commenting on it. (ii) the function of a medical assessor under reg. 22 (6) of the Regulations of 1948, was confined to advising the commissioner on the medical evidence, and if anything more were required the proper course was to proceed under reg. 26 (i) ; in the present case certain passages of the advice received exceeded the functions of an assessor under reg. 22 (6) with the consequence that, if the tribunal were to rely on it, information of the advice should have been given to the parties and opportunity to. call evidence or make submissions thereon. (R. v. Deputy Industrial Injuries Commissioner, ex parte Jones, 1962, 2, All England Reports, page 430.) Notary Public—application for appointment by a stock broker. OnJuly 23rd, the Chief Justice gave judgment in an application by a stockbroker for appointment as a notary public. The application was opposed by the Faculty of Notaries Public and by the Incorporated Law Society. The Chief Justice in granting .the- application said that he agreed with the recent trend of decisions in respect of such applications, which was to prefer applicants from the solicitors' pro fession. However, in this particular case he would have to have regard to the fact that a vacancy had occurred and no application for appointment from a solicitor had been forthcoming. His Lordship was satisfied that the public interest would be served by the granting of the application on condition that the applicant should undertake not to do any conveyancing or other legal work which was not appropriate to his profession as a stockbroker. The applicant was present in court and gave the required undertaking.