The Gazette 1927-30

F[JULY, 1927

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

13

the Accountant of the Courts of Justice, on stocks and shares in public companies ordered to be transferred to the personal representative of the deceased patient on the discharge of the case out of Lunacy. ., $ The Taxing Master disallowed the items on the ground that the demand of the Accountant of the Courts of Justice was not warranted by the Court Fees (Supreme Court and High Court) Order, 1926, under which the claim was made, and that the Solicitors should not have paid the amounts charged. The General Solicitor has offered me a very clear argument in support of that ruling. Though the matter might at first sight appear perhaps doubtful, I have, upon an examina tion of the Order, no doubt in the conclusion at which I have arrived. The Court Fees (Supreme Court and High Court) Order, 1926, prescribes certain fees and percentages to. be taken in the Court Offices in respect of certain items as set out in a schedule to the Order. It is not a complete, self-contained Order regulating all the fees and percentages to be taken in respect of all the business in all the Offices of the Courts. It is expressly stated in Clause 2 to be an Order amending the existing fees and percentages, and it is provided that the existing fees and per centages are to remain in force, save where amended by that Order. Now, turning to the schedule to the Order, we find that it is divided into four com partments. The first three of these compartments or divisions of the schedule are distinguished from the fourth by the fact that they relate to the fees to be taken in certain offices, while the fourth relates to the fees to be charged in certain matters, and is •" so entitled—Lunacy and Minor Matters. The first compartment of the schedule, though not so headed, clearly prescribes fees to be taken in the Central Office and other Offices of the High Court. The second com partment of the schedule provides fees to be taken in the Taxing Office, and is so entitled. The third compartment of the schedule prescribes fees to be taken in the Accountant's Office, and is so entitled. The fourth com partment prescribes fees to be taken in

out of the operation of the first three parts of the schedule and are grouped apart for separate treatment. This may be tested on a point other than that raised on the present application.- The second part of the schedule, that prescribing fees to be taken in the Taxing Office, clearly does not apply to Lunacy and Minor Matters, because the fourth compartment of the schedule prescribes the fees for taxing bills in these matters. It is clear, therefore, that the only part of the schedule to the Order which applies to Lunacy and Minor Matters is the fourth part or division of the schedule, which is so entitled, and that none of the fees set out in the first three compartments of the schedule may be charged or taken in Lunacy or Minor Matters. The existing fees and percentages as amended by the fees and percentages set out in the fourth compart ment of the schedule to the Court Fees Order of 1926 are the fees and percentages to be charged and taken in Lunacy and Minor Matters. The Lunacy matters are very much more numerous than the Minor Matters (now dealt with in the same office), and the explanation of the separate treatment of these matters together is not far to seek. A statutory percentage is charged on the estates administered in the Lunacy Office (save in the case of very small estates exempted on account of poverty), and that percentage is paid in consideration of work done by the Officers of the Court. The other fees charged must obviously be modified accordingly. The fees which may be imposed in dealing with property in other cases where no such percentage is charged could not with any justice be imposed on the estates in Lunacy. Hence the differential treatment accorded to these cases in the matter of Court Fees. There was, therefore, no warrant in the Court Fees Order for the fees demanded and taken by the Accountant in the present case. The fees having been wrongly charged, I cannot accede to the application in the form in which it is made. I will, however, make an Order directing the Committee or his Solicitor to obtain a refund from the Accountant of the moneys erroneously exacted by him.

Lunacy and Minor Matters, and is so entitled. These matters as a class are taken i