The Gazette 1955-58

(7) The Statutory limitation of time for an action of suit by a State authority or the Attorney General to recover State land or rent therefor will be a period of 60 years or 30 years according to the cir– cumstances of the case defined in the Nullum Tempus (Ireland) Act; 1876. (Sect. 18) (8) State debts arising in connection with State lands are given the same priorities which formerly attached to debts due to the Crown. The section is analogous to subsection 38 (2) of the Finance Act, 1924. (Sect. 19) (9) Provision is made for the acceptance and refusal of gifts of real or personal property to a State authority, the State, the Nation or the People (Sect. 20) and for the custody of title deeds relating to State land (Sect. 23) and that the seal of the Com– missioners of Public Works shall be judicially noticed. (Sect. 24) (10) Provision is made that rights and pre– rogatives which by virtue of Article 49 of the Constitution belong to the people and relate to any property shall be exercised by the Government through and by the Minister for Finance (Sect. 28) and that the past and present property of dissolved bodies corporate shall be State property (Sect. 29) (n) All personal property which became or becomes the property of the State either as bona vacantia or by virtue of Section 29 shall vest in the Minister for Finance (Sect. 30) and the Minister may if he so thinks fit apply to the High Court for an order declaring that property has devolved upon the State by way of escheat or has become the pro– perty of the State as bona vacantia or by virtue of section 29, the order so made to be conclusive evidence on the point subject to appeal to the Supreme Court. (Sect. 31) INTEREST. Costs—Contentious or Non-Contentious • Business— Lump Sum Bill. THE case noted at Page 67, Vol. 48, of the Gazette has now been affirmed by the Court of Appeal (Denning and Parker, L.J.J., and Roxburgh, J.). It will be recalled that Gerrard, J. decided inter- alia that whether business was contentious or non- contentious must be determined by its nature and not solely by the questions whether litigious pro– ceedings had been commenced and the business had been done in those proceedings ; the true test was whether, if the case went to trial, remuneration for the business (even though done before the litiga– tion began) would be allowed on a party and party DECISIONS OF PROFESSIONAL

(2) State lands formerly belonging to the Crown, Admiralty, Air Ministry, R.I.C., and land devolving on the State as property of a dissolved company or as escheated land or as bona vacantia are vested in the Minister for Finance. (Sect. 5) (3) A State authority (i.e. a Minister or the Com– missioners of Public 'Works) is enabled to convey, assign or transfer State land vested in it to any other State authority. (Sect. 7) (4) State authorities, in respect of State land vested in them are empowered to sell, exchange, grant gratuitously or lease such land subject to the consent (general or particular) of the Minister for Finance, Certain lands (Forestry lands, State minerals, aero– drome lands, the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park, the National Stud Farm, Johnstown Castle Agri– cultural College) are excluded from the scope of these provisions (Sects. 9 and 10) (5) A State authority is enabled to institute legal proceedings as if it were the owner, lessee or tenant of State land vested in it and a sealed certificate of such authority to prima facie evidence of its tenure of the land. A sealed certificate may also be prima facie evidence that the State knd is held from the State authority by a specified person on specified terms, that a specified sum is due as rent, that a notice to quit was served on a tenant and that the tenant refused to surrender possession of the knd. (Sect. 16) (6) A simplified procedure for the recovery of State premises is instituted where premises were overheld by (a) State servants (e.g. members of the Defence Forces, Garda Siochana and Civil Service) and ex-State servants who were put, by reason of their being State servants, into occupation of the premises, (b~) persons who were put into occupation of the premises as servants, herdsmen or caretakers and (c) persons remaining in occupation of the premises after the deaths of the State servants etc., who were occupiers. The procedure invoked hitherto involved an application to the Circuit Court for an ejectment order. The procedure now pro– posed is that the District Court may on the applica– tion of a State authority, in whom premises are vested, issue an order to a county registrar, sheriff of under-sheriff, as may be appropriate, to deliver possession of the premises to any person named in the order. To facilitate court proceedings the section provided that a certificate of the State authority shall be prima facie evidence of certain matters, e.g., that a specified person was on a specified date in occupation of the premises, was in occupation by reason of his being a State servant, had been served with a demand to quit and had refused to quit. (Sect. 17)