The Gazette 1944-46

of Justice requesting the Council to nominate a member of the Irish Legal Terms Advisory Committee constituted under the provisions of the above-nientioned Act. The Council nominated Mr. Scan 6 hUadhaigh as their representative on the Committee. Land Registration Fee Order, 1944. THE Secretary reported that following the publica tion of the Land Registration Fee Order, 1944, of which the Council had not received any previous notification, a deputation had interviewed the Minister for Justice in order to point out the exorbitant increases in the Land Registry fees imposed by the Order and to press for its revoca tion or drastic amendment. A reasoned statement of the case for the revocation of the order had also been prepared in the form of a memorandum, which was submitted on behalf of the Council to the Minister for Justice. Following the receipt of this memorandum from the Council, the Minister for Justice had appointed a Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. H. B. O'Hanlon, Taxing Master of the High Court, to investigate and report to him upon the effects of the Order and as to whether any changes in the new scale of fees should be made. A copy of the Council's memorandum had been circulated to the members of the Committee. The Council had been invited to nominate two members of the Committee and appointed the President and Mr. John B. Hamill. In addition to the chairman there were three other members of the Committee, all of whom were Civil Servants. The Committee had met on a number of occasions and eventually submitted a majority and a minority report to the Minister. The minority report was signed by the representa tives of the Council, while the majority report was signed by the other members of the Committee and the Chairman. The Minister, after considering the reports had notified the Society that he had decided to adopt the views expressed in the Majority Report and that no changes would be made in the scale of fees authorised by the Land Registration Fee Order, 1944. It was ordered that the matter should be placed on the agenda of the Half-Yearly General Meeting of the Society to be held on November 26th. Petrol for Solicitors. THE Secretary reported that since the end of the war he had again written to the Department of Supplies requesting the Minister to consider the granting of a basic petrol allowance to country solicitors and pointed out the difficulties under which they had to carry on business owing to the

absence of travelling facilities. He had recently received a reply from the Department stating that the petrol position had not improved and that the Minister was, therefore, unable to grant the facilities requested at the present time. CURRENT TOPICS, Solicitor's Lien where acting for both Mortgagor and Mortgagee. IN a case which was recently heard by the English Chancery Division the Court decided a point of interest to the profession which has been the subject of a number of conflicting decisions. The plaintiff was a mortgagor in an action to redeem his mortgage and the defendants were the legal personal representatives of the deceased mortgagee. One of the defendants was also the solicitor who had drawn up the mortgage, having acted on that occasion for both mortgagor and mortgagee. The solicitor-defendant retained the title deeds in his possession and continued so to retain them after the death of the mortgagee, of whose will he was an acting executor. He therefore stood at various times in the capacities of (a) solicitor for mortgagor and mortgagee severally (b) solicitor for both of them and (c) one of the executors of the deceased mortgagee. He claimed to hold a retaining lien against the mortgagor over the documents of title for the costs of the mortgage transaction and other monies due by the mortgagor, all of which had become statute barred. The Court held that once the solicitor became an executor of the deceased mortgagee he ceased to hold the title deeds as solicitor, and thereafter held them as executor jointly with his co-defendants. A solicitor con notes a client and a man cannot be solicitor for himself. The Court further expressed the view that even if the mortgagee had survived, or if the solicitor-defendant had not been one of his executors, his lien would have been lost by reason of his having acted in the capacity of solicitor for both mortgagor and mortgagee, even though the title deeds never left his office. (Barratt v. Gough—Thomas and others 61 T.L.R.534). Documents and Pictures (Regulation of Export) Act, 1945. THE short title of the above-mentioned Act which has become law is "An Act to regulate the export of documents and pictures with the object of preserving records of those which are of national, historical, genealogical or literary interest." The word "document" is defined in the Act as including any writing, drawing, map, chart, plan, 42