The Gazette 1913-14

the Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

[Ju.\E, 1913

general rules for carrying into effect the Labourers Acts, and, after consultation with or notice of consultation sent to the President of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, to make rules which, subject as therein mentioned, may fix the amount of any fees, and may provide for the taxation and payment of any costs to be received, allowed or paid in relation to the confirmation by the Local Government Board, and the carrying into execution of improvement schemes. In the case of The King (Lady Mowbray and Stourton) v. The Local Government Board, Ireland, the Court of Appeal decided, on this point reversing the decision of the King's Bench Division, that the Local Government Board had power, under Sec. 31, of fixing the fees payable to a vendor's Solicitor for the costs of making out title to land compulsorily taken for labourers' cottages, and for this purpose to alter the scale fees under the Solicitors Remuneration Act, 1881 ; but they also decided that it was necessary for the Local Government Board to make an order for the purpose, and that they must permit the vendor's Solicitor to appear on the taxation, and that they could not, without making a general order, merely refer a bill of costs to their own Solicitor for him to say what was reasonable to be paid. Accordingly the Labourers (Ireland) Order, 1909, was made, which, among other things, provided a scale of costs for owners and lessees, appointed a taxing officer, and provided for a proper taxation. It further provided that, at the option of the Solicitor acting on behalf of an owner or lessee, the total fees payable for deducing title to lands taken under the Acts and completing transfer thereof to the Council, might, without any taxation, be in accordance with a graduated scale, com– mencing at two guineas as a minimum. I was told that in a case which came before the Lord Chief Baron (the name of which was not mentioned), that learned Judge held that a tenant from year to year is a " lessee," he is in fact tenant for a term of years (Wright v. Tracy, I. R. 8, C. L. 478), and that, consequently, he was not restricted to the 10/6 fee as a mere occupier, but was entitled to be paid on the scale applicable to owners and lessees. The Local Government Board then issued another Order dated 13th Feb., 1912, which re-enacted the provisions of the

rule of 1909 as regards the costs of owners and lessees, but further provides that where land is taken from an occupier who is neither owner or lessee thereof, the fee payable by the Council for all expense incurred in respect of the employment of a Solicitor by him for the purpose of deducing title to his occupa– tion interest shall be the sum of 10/6 ; and it was further provided that " In the con– struction and for the purpose of this rule, the expression 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) Acts, 1881, and the Acts amending the same ; (b) any tenant holding under a tenancy from year to year or any lesser tenancy ; or, (c) any such tenant as is hereinbefore in this clause mentioned who has entered into an agreement for the purchase of his holding under the Land Purchase Acts, but in whom such holding is not yet vested under the said Acts." It will be observed that the 10/6 fee is, by the express words of the rule, confined to cases when title is deduced to an occupation interest. Now, what is meant by a title to an occupation interest as opposed to what, I suppose, would be called a proprietary title, I am wholly at a loss to understand. A man's right to occupy depends upon his title to the land, which may be an estate in fee- simple or in tail, or an estate for life, or a lease for lives or years, or a tenancy from year to year ; but in any case it is the title to the land which entitles the occupier to occupy if he so chooses instead of letting to a tenant. In MacLaughlin v. Limavady R.D.C. (43 I.L.T.R., 279) the late Recorder of Londonderry, Judge Overend a most able and experienced Judge said: "The rule dealing with occupiers was only intended to apply when a short abstract, consisting of a copy of the Fair Rent Order, had to be furnished, and does not apply to such a case as the present, where title had to be deduced from a previous owner and subsisting estates dealt with." Possibly this may be what is meant by a title to an occupation interest, but, if so, it is not what was required in the present case. It must be remembered that