The Gazette 1918-19

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

|JULY, 1918

20

Recent Decisions Affecting Solicitors. (Notes of Decisions, whether in reported or unreported cases, of interest to Solicitors, are invited from Members?) COURT OF APPEAL (ENGLAND). (Before Pickford, Warrington and Scrutton, L.JJ.) JONES AND SON v. WHITEHOUSE. April I5th, i6th, 1918. Solicitor—Costs— Action on bill—Bill delivered more than twelve months before action—Application for judg ment under Order XIV.—Leave to defend.— Objection to a few items—Right to taxation. The plaintiffs, by a specially endorsed writ, sought to recover some £64, the amount of a bill of costs. The signed bill of costs was delivered to the defendant on November 27th, 1916, and the writ was issued on February I3th, 1918, no application to tax the bill having then been made. The plaintiffs applied under Order XIV. for leave to sign final judgment for the amount of the bill. Before the Registrar the defendant's Solicitor asked that the bill should be referred for taxation. The Registrar refused, and gave leave to sign judgment. Before the Judge in Chambers the defendant made an affidavit, in which he alleged that the charges were excessive and unreasonable, and in particular he objected to three items of ten guineas or under. The Judge dismissed the appeal. The defendant appealed. There was an absence of special circumstances entitling the defendant to taxation under Sec. 37 of the Solicitors Act, 1843 (6 and 7 Vie., c. 73), to which Sec. 2 of the Attornies and Solicitors (Ireland) Act, 1849 (12 and 13 Vie., c. 53) corresponds. Their Lordships dismissed the appeal. They held that the items objected to were in fact reasonable in amount. If the appellant had shown a reasonable ground of objection to a few of the items of the bill, the Court would have given him leave to defend as to those items, but the appellant would not have been entitled to taxation of the whole bill. (Reported The Law Journal, Vol. LIII., p. 156).

increased in respect of all business done on or after the jth day of May, 1918, by the addition thereto of an amount equal to twenty-five per cent, of the amount of such prescribed fees and costs, and that (2) all Solicitors' fees and costs payable in pro– ceedings under the " Land Purchase Acts," as prescribed by Order XXI. of the Rules of the Irish Land Commission, dated the 2nd day of July, 1910, shall be increased in respect of business done on or after the 7th day of May, 1918, by the addition thereto of an amount equal to twenty per cent, of the amount of such prescribed fees and costs, such increases to be in force during the continuance of the present war and for a period of six months thereafter. Solicitors' Remuneration. THE Council, in consultation with the Taxing Masters, have arranged that (1) Party and party costs, and costs payable under orders, will be accepted for taxa– tion with an additional item at the end of the bill claiming the amount of the increased remuneration on the profes– sional charges ; and that (2) In the case of costs taxable under requisitions, including ordinary Solicitor and client bills, each item of the pro– fessional charges should be separately increased by the amount of the authorised increase. Index to War Orders and Proclamations. THE " Solicitors' Journal and Weekly Reporter " publishes from time to time an Index to War Orders and Proclamations, giving the title of the Order or Proclamation and the page in the journal on which each Order or Proclamation is to be found. The most recent index, covering the'period from October 2Oth, 1917, to June*ist, 1918, is to be found in the issue of June 8th.