The Gazette 1911-12

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

102

[FEBRUARY, 1912

Mr. A. B. Kellv (who carries on the business) under the style of Kelly and McGonigal. MR. ROBERT A. Ros=? TODD, Solicitor, Bally- shannon, died upon the 19th January. 1912, at Ballyshannon. Mr. Todd, who served his apprenticeship with Mr. J. M. Ross Todd, 14- Westmoreland Street, Dublin, and the late Mr. Paul Dane, of Ballyshannon, was admitted in Trinity Sittings, 1880, and practised (formerly in partnership with the late Mr. Dane) at Bally shannon, under the style of Dane and Todd. Recent Decisions affecting Solicitors. (Notes of decisions, whether in reported or unreported cases, of interest to Solicitos, are invited from Members.) COUNTY COURT. (Before His Honour Judge Overend, Recorder of Londonderry). Proctor v. Limavady Rural District Council. January 13, 1912.— Labourers Acts costs— Furnishing title on behalf of judicial tenant who has signed an agreement to •purchase under Land Purchase Acts— Labourers (Ireland) Order, 1910. THIS was a Civil Bill heard at Limavady, in which James E. Proctor, Solicitor, sued for the sum of £2 10s. Id., amount of a Bill of Costs for furnishing title to a plot of land taken by the Limavady Rural District Council under the Labourers Acts as a site for Labourers' Cottages. Dr. J. C. B. Proctor, Solicitor, appeared for the Plaintiff, and Mr. William Homer, Solicitor, for the Defendants. Dr. Proctor, stating the case, said that Mr. J. E. Proctor, Solicitor, acted for Martha Crilly, on whose land a site had been taken by the Limavady Rural Council for the erection of a labourer's cottage. Martha Crilly was a judicial tenant, and had signed an agreement for the purchase of her holding under the Land Purchase Act of 1903. The title was furnished in January, 1911, to Mr. Horner as Solicitor for the Council, and plaintiff's bill of the title costs was sent to the defendants, and amounted to £2 10s. Id., which was made up of £2 2s. Od. fee and outlay. On the 8th September, 1911, the plaintiff received a letter from the Clerk of the Council saying

j that as the holding of his client was a judicial tenancy, a fee of half-a-guinea was all that was payable for deducing title in respect of same under the Labourers (Ireland) Order, 1910. Dr. Proctor stated that before the Local Government Board Order of 1910 the position was as follows :—A solicitor for furnishing title on behalf of an owner or lessee was entitled under Rule 55, Clause 5 of the Labourers (Ireland) Order, 1909, to tax his bill of costs drawn in accordance 'with the scale in the Order, or under Clause 8, he could accept at his option a composite fee the amount of which varied in respect to the amount of compensation payable. For furnishing an abstract of title on behalf of an occupier a sum not exceeding 10s. 6d. was payable under Clause 9, and it was decided by the Lord Chief Baron in Elliott v. Stranorlar Rural District Council that a judicial tenant was a lessee, and accordingly that a Solicitor furnishing title on behalf of a judicial tenant was entitled to lessee costs. Subsequently the Labourers (Ireland) Order, 1910, was issued, and it -provided that " where land is " taken from an occupier who is neither " owner nor lessee thereof, the fee payable " by the Council for all expenses incurred in " respect of the employment of a Solicitor " by him for the purpose of deducing title " to his occupation interest, shall be the sum " of ten shillings and sixpence," and that " in the construction and for the purposes of " this Rule the expressions ' owner' or " ' lessee ' shall not extend to or include (a) " any tenant of a holding subject to a " judicial rent fixed or agreed to under the "Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, and the " Acts amending the same ; (b) any tenant " holding under a tenancy from year to year " or any lesser tenancy ; or (r) any such " tenant as is hereinbefore in this Clause " mentioned who has entered into an agree- " ment for the purchase of his holding under " the Land Purchase Acts, but in whom such " holding is not yet vested under the said " Acts." The question, therefore, here was : has the Local Government Board gone outside the scope of the powers vested in them by Section 31 of the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906, and is the Order of 19.10 partially ultra vires? Dr. Proctor admitted the Local Government Board had power to say what