The Gazette 1961 - 64

5. The present common law rules which stop a civil action in tort because the facts alleged disclose a felony on the part of the defendant unless criminal proceedings are instituted, are being abolished. 6. Subject to specified exceptions, all causes of action of any person survive on his death for the benefit of his estate and all causes of action subsisting against him survive against his estate. 7. A person who causes the death of another by his wrongful act is liable to an action for damages for the benefit of the dependants ofthe deceased and the Minister for Finance will be liable to an action for damages for the death of any person caused by the negligent driving of a mechanically propelled vehicle belonging to the state. The bill is extremely technical and complicated. It is published together with an explanatory memorandum of 78 pages issued by the Department of Justice. The explanatory memorandum, amended to include any changes made on the Special Com– mittee stage of the bill, is now on sale at the Government Publications Sales Office, price i/-. The Bill as passed by both Houses is available at 2s. 6d per copy. ROAD TRAFFIC ACT, 1961 The Road Traffic Act, 1961, will come into operation on a date to be fixed by order of the Minister for Local Government. It is a compre– hensive measure dealing with the entire road traffic code and the Act of 1933 is completely repealed. Section 7 of the Fatal Injuries Act is also repealed, and its provisions are re-enacted, with some variation, by Section 116 of the new Act. Many of the provisions of the 1933 Act are re-enacted with little or no variation, but there are certain important additions and amendments. The attention of practitioners is particularly drawn to the following Sections: Section 53, dealing with the offence of dangerous driving, where it is provided that a contravention of the section resulting in death or serious bodily harm shall make the defendant liable on conviction to penal servitude for 5 years or a fine of £500 or both sentence and fine. Section 55, which creates the new offence of parking a vehicle in a dangerous position. Section 107, which deals with the duty to give information to a member of the Garda Siochana and which has a very much wider scope than Section 177 of the 1933 Act. Under Section 107 of the new Act, a guard may, if he has reasonable 21

Terence Doyle and Son) appeared for the defendant. Mr. Raymond O'Neill, s.c. (instructed by Messrs. D. & T. Fitzgerald) held a watching brief on behalf of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. CIVIL LIABILITY ACT, 1961 The Bill became law on the I4th of August, 1961. The main provisions of the Act, some of which are a re-enactment of the existing law, are as follows : 1. The term wrong includes breach of contract and breach of trust in addition to the common meaning of tort heretofore accepted and concurrent wrong means a wrong done by two or more parties causing the same injury to the injured party. 2. Concurrent wrongdoers will each be liable for the whole of the damage which they caused to the injured party and may be sued either together or separately. If they are sued together the effect of any judgment given by the Court will be to make each of the defendants liable separately for the full amount of the plaintiff's damages. The damages in such case may be apportioned between the defendants by the jury but apparently only by the express or implied agreement of the plaintiff. 3. The common law distinctions between joint and several concurrent tortfeasors, whereby a release to one joint tortfeasor discharges all and whereby one joint tortfeasor making satisfaction and has no right of contribution against the others, will be abolished and in fact the terminology and law relating to joint tortfeasors will be replaced by the proposed statutory provisions regarding concurrent wrong– doers. A concurrent wrongdoer who makes satisfaction either by settlement or as the result of a judgment of a Court to the injured party will have a right of contribution against the other concurrent wrongdoers either by joining them in the action as third parties or by separate proceedings but the bill makes provision to encourage the enforcement of the right of contribution by the third party procedure rather than by separate proceedings. 4. The present common law regarding contribu– tory negligence is being amended or rather abolished. A new statutory rule is to be substituted whereby on proof by the defendant that the damage suffered by the plaintiff was caused partly by the plaintiff's negligence the damages are to be reduced by such an amount as the Court thinks just. The plaintiff's action will not be dismissed, as under the present rules, but the damages will be reduced rateably in proportion to his own negligence.