The Gazette 1946-49

sidered. It was ordered that the application under Section 16 be granted, and the application under Section 18 be not opposed. Costs of Tenancy Agreements THE Council considered a report from a Committee on this matter, and directed that a note should be published in the GAZETTE to clarify the position. The opinion of the Council is printed on page 45 of this issue. Guarantee of rent on the granting of a lease UNDER an arrangement between an intending lessor and an intending lessee a third party guaran teed the rent on behalf of the lessee. Some cor respondence and attendances, which would have not been necessary had there been no guarantee, took place. The lessor's solicitor claimed charges against the lessee for such correspondence and attendances in addition to the scale fee. The Council decided, that as between the parties, in the absence of any stipulation to the contrary the lessor was not entitled to charge the lessee with the extra expenses thereby occasioned. Solicitor pleading Statute of Limitations A solicitor who owned certain property jointly with a person who was not his client, was accustomed to strike a balance periodically with his co-owner showing the amounts due to each on foot of rent collected. The co-owner was also in occupation of portion of the property as sub-lessee at a rack rent; and the periodical account included the income tax to be allowed as between the parties. By a bona fide error the solicitor did not allow to his co-owner the full amount of income tax to which she was entitled, and after her death the solicitors acting for her executors took the matter up with the solicitor who was joint owner with the deceased. More than six years had elapsed since the original mistake had occurred, and the solicitor joint-owner offered to allow six years' refund of the income tax which had been under- allowed. The matter was submitted to the Council for their opinion. The Council expressed the opinion that, except under abnormal and unusual circum stances, a solicitor, while legally entitled to plead the Statute of Limitations in regard to his personal debts, should not do so as a matter of practice, and that, in this particular case, the statute should not be pleaded. Solicitors' Bill THE Secretary read a letter from the Taoiseach, stating that the Government have directed that the Solicitors' Bill be drafted by the Parliamentary

Draftsman, and that he had requested the Parli mentary Draftsman to give the matter his earliest attention so that the Bill might be introduced in the Dili as soon as possible after the Christmas recess. NOVEMBER 26th. The President in the chair : Also present: Mr. James R. Quirke, Vice-President, Messrs. H. St. J. Blake, P. F. O'Reilly, G. A. Overend, Roger Greene, Thomas A. O'Reilly, William J. Norman, Niall S. Gaffney, Henry P. Mayne, Daniel O'Connell, John P. Carrigan, Dermot P. Shaw, W. S. Huggard, P. R. Boyd, John J. Dunne, J. D. O'Connell, L. E. O'Dea, J. Travers Wolfe, A. Cox. The following was among the business trans acted : Undertaking by Solicitor THE Secretary reported that he received a query from a solicitor for the opinion of the Council as to his position under the following circumstances. Acting on behalf of a purchaser who had purchased a business as a going concern, he had received an undertaking from the vendor's solicitors that they would furnish a certificate from an accountant that the turnover of the business exceeded £11,000 per annum. The balance of the purchase money had thereupon been placed on a deposit account in the joint names of the solicitors for the vendor and the purchaser. The solicitor for the purchaser had given the following cross-undertaking : " In consideration of closing the sale this day I undertake to endorse the deposit receipt for £4,034, in return for the delivery of the deed of assignment duly executed by the vendor. I also undertake to send you the said deed of assignment for execu tion within one week. This, provided I receive the accounts required in your cross-undertaking within the prescribed time." The purchaser in structed his solicitor that the auctioneer had stated that the gross profit on the turnover was greater than had been found to be the case, and he instructed his solicitor not to endorse and hand over the deposit receipt. The Council expressed the opinion that the undertaking given by the solicitor for the purchaser was a personal under taking, and that he is bound both as a matter of professional practice and conduct, and also legally, to endorse and hand over the deposit receipt for the balance of the purchase money, on compliance by the vendor's solicitors with their cross-under taking. Applications under Sections 16 and 18 Two applications from law clerks asking for leave to be bound for three years as apprentices were 43