The Gazette 1944-46

of a Taxing Master, which are synonymous terms under both the Rules of the Supreme Court (Ireland) 1905, and the English Rules of the Supreme Court. The application before the Court of Appeal was for an order of mandamus to one of the District Registrars of the High Court directing him to deal with certain objec tions which the applicant desired to make on the taxation of the plaintiff's costs of an action in which the applicant had been the unsuccessful defendant. The costs had been taxed and certain items disallowed. The applicant's solicitor attend ing the taxation on his behalf had opposed certain other items in the bill but was overruled, and he had neither intimated before the close of the taxation that he intended to carry in objections in writing, nor requested the Registrar to postpone signing the certificate to give him an opportunity of carrying in such objections. The Registrar then wrote and signed on the bill a certificate in the following terms :—"Taxed and allowed at £493 6s. 4d.. August 31st, signed, A. V. Rhodes, District Registrar." The applicant's solicitor, on September 3rd, served notice of objection to the taxation, but the Registrar refused to accept it on the ground that the taxation could not be re-opened after the signing of the certificate. The application for the order of mandamus against the Registrar was based on the ground that the procedure on taxation had not been in accordance with the Rides of Court, and that the note made on the bill of costs was not a certificate of taxation. The Court held that the procedure had not been irregular and that the note on the bill was a sufficient certificate, and satisfied the four essential conditions for that purpose. Those conditions were that it should contain (1) the nature of the cause or matter (2) an indication of the party whose costs are to be paid (3) the amount at which the bill is taxed and (4) the signature of the Taxing Master or other responsible official giving the certificate. O.65 R.66 (1) of R.S.C. (Ireland) 1905, prescribing the proper procedure to obtain a review of taxation, is substantially similar in terms to the corresponding English O.65 R.27 (39). Our Rules of Court contain no general definition or description of a certificate of taxa tion. O.52 R.9 provides that a certificate of taxa tion of costs to be paid out of a fund in Court shall be in the form No. 5 in appendix M to the Rules, but this rule is limited in its application to special cases. It would therefore seem that although by custom a certificate of a Taxing Master of the High Court is issued in the familiar form as a separate document it need not necess arily be so, and that (except in the case of costs 14

tions passed by Bar Associations throughout the country with reference to the increase of Land Registry Fees effected by the Order. It was re solved that a deputation from the Council should approach the Minister for Justice in order to point out that the extraordinary increase in the expenses of registration imposed by the Order is viewed with concern by the solicitors profession and to press for a modification in the Order. The Presi dent, Messrs. Macaulay and Cox, Vice-Presidents, J. S. O'Connor, T.D., J. J. Dunne and J. P. Carrigan were appointed to form the deputation. Unqualified Person. THE Secretary reported that as directed by the Coimcil he had caused proceedings to be instituted in his name against an unqualified person for having prepared an instrument relating to real or personal estate, namely a letting agreement, for fee or reward contrary to the provisions of the Conveyancers Ireland Act, 1864, and that he had received from Mr. P. F. O'Reilly who had acted for him in the matter a letter stating that since the institution of the proceedings the de fendant had paid £20, the penalty provided by the Act payable to the Society together with the costs of the civil process. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SOLICITORS. BY order of the Chief Justice, dated 17th April, 1944, made on the application of the Society, it was ordered that the name of Edward Daly, Solicitor, who was admitted in Trinity Sittings, 1934, and formerly practised at Ballymahon, Co. Longford, be struck off the Roll of Solicitors on the ground that he had been convicted of conspiracy to defraud. BY order of the Chief Justice, dated 18th May, made on a report from the Statutory Committee, it was ordered that the name of Sydney Edwin Cooper, who was admitted in Hilary Sittings, 1932, and formerly practised at 5, South Frederick Street, Dublin, be struck off the Roll of Solicitors, on the ground that he had been guilty of profess ional misconduct. CURRENT TOPICS. Certificates of Taxation of Costs. REX v. District Registrar of Kingston-upon-Hull. (60 T.L.R.287), recently decided by the Court of Appeal in England, turned upon the exact meaning of the term certificate of taxation or allocatur