The Gazette 1911-12

116

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

MARCH, 1912J

! receipts, embellished with maps and so forth, the duty which the Solicitor for the Vendor j has to discharge involves a considerable amount of diligence and skill and entails a considerable loss of time. The taxation will be completed in accordance with the I principles above expressed. Yours faithfully, (Signed), EDWARD McHuan. Messrs. O'Keeffe & Lynch, Solicitors, 30 Molesworth Street, Dublin. Irish Land Acts, 1903 and 1909. SALE OF IMMATURE STOCK. THE Treasury have sent the following letter to the President of the Society :— Treasury Chambers, 13th February, 1912. SIR, I am directed by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury to acquaint you that My Lords have now made Rules and Regulations under Section 41 and other Sections of the Irish Land Act, 1903, and Section 14 and other Sections of the Irish Land Act, 1909, under date of 24th January, 1912. In enclosing copies herewith, I am to draw the attention of the Council of the Incor porated Law Society of Ireland to Rule 9 (9) relating to Stock bearing a fractional dividend' (Immature Stock), which formed the subject of a memorandum by the Council in May last. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, (Signed), ROBERT CHALMERS. The President, Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, Four Courts, Dublin. Rule 9 (9), referred to in this letter, provides : " Where stock bearing a fractional " dividend is to be sold by Order of the '-' Land Commission, the stock may be " forthwith consolidated with the similar " stock in existence on payment to the " Irish Land Purchase fund, through the '' medium of the Land Commission, of a " full half-year's dividend on such stock."

statutory receipts, the aggregate compensa tion having exceeded £60, and the case, therefore, was one to which Section 11 of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906, did not apply. The Rural District Council was not repre sented at the taxation, although special notice was given to them thereof, and of the point raised ; but I have considered all suggestions which have been from time to time made at taxations of costs here in support of the contrary view, namely, the view that no costs should be allowed under any circum stances in connection with a statutory receipt the duty to give which was created by Section 17 of the Railways Act (Ireland), 1851, and Article 19 of the Second Schedule of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, both which sections together with Sec tion 82 of the Land Clauses Act, 1845, form part of the Labourers' Code. I have arrived at the conclusion that the owner is entitled to his costs necessarily and properly incurred in connection with the thirty receipts which he was required to execute. The statutory indemnity against costs of conveyances and assurances granted by Section 82 of the Land Clauses Act, 1845, extends to costs of all instruments required by the Rural District Council to effect the transfer to them of the whole fee-simple in the land taken, and I do not think it matters whether these instruments are technically speaking,'deeds of conveyance. I do not see any adequate ground for thinking that the statutory indemnity does not extend to costs (if any) incurred in connection with the special mode of assurance instituted by the incorporated statutes, namely, the mode of assurance by statutory receipt, .except, of course, in the case of a receipt under Section 11 of the Act of 1906, where there is an express limitation of this indemnity. It may be possible to argue other views as to the construction of the code, but the one I have adopted is the one which appears to me to be the most eligible, and it has the merit of being consistent with what is manifestly intended by the code, namely, indemnity against necessary and proper costs. In the majority of cases, of course, the costs which a Vendor would properly incur in connection with a statutory receipt would be trifling, but in some exceptional cases, such as the present, where there is a large number of