The Gazette 1907-8

[FEB., 1908

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

88

scale relating to equity proceedings under the County Courts (Ireland) Orders. Rule 15 of the Provisional County Court Rules of Z4th Isfovember, 1906, regulating procedure in the County Court under the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906, is as follows :—"The costs payable under any order of a County Court Judge shall, if not otherwise prescribed under these rules, be in all cases in his discretion ; but, in fixing the amount, regard shall be had, so far as prac ticable, to the amount of costs which may be awarded in analogous cases in the equity juris diction of the County Court Judges. All costs which are taxed shall be taxed under the Rules and Schedule of Fees relating to equity pro ceedings under the County Courts (Ireland) Orders. Where no fees are thereby provided for any work done under these Rules the fees thereby fixed for analogous work shall be applicable." Judge Barry directed that the costs of the petitioners should be taxed under the higher scale of the Schedule of Fees relating to equity proceedings under the County Courts (Ireland) Orders. Irish Land Act, 1903. THE following Memorandum for counsel with reference to the investigation of title by them for the purposes of section 17 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, and the giving of Certificates on the Form T to the Rules of the Estates Commis sioners dated the 4th November, 1907, has been approved of by the Hon. Mr. Justice Wylie :— The object of counsel's certificate is to satisfy the Estates Commissioners that the vendor is a person having power to sell under the Land Purchase Acts the lands set forth in the ist Schedule to the originating application or request, and thus enable them, subject to the advertisements and notices prescribed by their rules, without any further investigation of title, to deal with vendors as the owners of their estates for all purposes other than the distribution of the purchase-money or the pay ment of any percentage out of the Land Purchase Aid Fund. Counsel is not concerned with the actual form of agreement which may have been entered into between a vendor and his tenants, or the agreement which may be in contempla tion between a vendor and the Estates Com missioners- :•••-" : : ' : '

present appeal was brought; but the only items in respect of which the plaintiffs persevered in the appeal were items 80 and 81—viz., the fees of £4. 4-r. each paid to Dr. Burke Savage and Surgeon Kennedy. These gentlemen had attended the deceased when he came up to Dublin to undergo an operation, shortly before his death, and prior to the making of his will. They had been summoned as witnesses under the direction of senior counsel; and the two items of ^4 4^. were expressed to be for con sultation and reports on the mental condition of the testator prior to the date of the making of the will. The bill of costs furnished by the plaintiffs' solicitors contained the following statement :—" When it became known that the defendant's case was grounded on the alle gation of deceased's insanity, the executors were entirely at a loss to understand what particular form of insanity (if any) was alleged. The correspondence between the solicitors on both sides with reference to the case did not touch upon the matter. Consequently the solicitors for the plaintiffs were driven to pre pare to rebut at the trial any allegations that could possibly be made as to the deceased's insanity. Had the executors known that the defendant was going to make the case that deceased was suffering from a particular form of mania, the working up of the plaintiffs' case would have been more simple." The Taxing Master, in the exercise of his .discretion, dis allowed the two items on the ground that the special reports were unnecessary, and did not appear to have been of any benefit in the case. The Court unanimously dismissed the appeal on the ground that there was no good reason for interfering with the order made by Andrews, J., and by consent measured the costs of the appeal at ;£io loj. Reported in I.L.T.R., Vol. XLII., page 2. Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906. AN application was made upon the 22nd of January to His Honor Judge Barry, sitting at Bray, in some cases heard by him at Naas, in which he had granted petitions against Rural District Councils, and had directed schemes to be amended by striking out cer tain lands proposed to be acquired for the purposes of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906, that the costs of the petitioners, which he had directed' to be paid by the Rural District Councils, should be taxed under the higher