The Gazette 1955-58

DATES OF PRELIMINARY AND FINAL EXAMINATIONS. FROM and including 1958 onwards the Preliminary and Final Examinations will be held during the Whitsun and Long Vacations, instead of Easter and Long Vacations as at present. The dates of the other examinations will be unchanged. UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN Trinity College. SCHOOLS OF COMMERCE, PUBLIC ADMINI STRATION AND SOCIAL STUDIES. APPLICATIONS are invited for the post of part-time lecturer in Industrial Law and Commercial Law. Terms of appointment may be obtained from the Registrar of the School of Commerce, who will receive applications under i$th July, 1957. DECISIONS OF PROFESSIONAL INTEREST Attempt by solicitor to pervert justice. On 3ist May after just over three hours' retire ment a jury at the Central Criminal Court found James Austin Owens, aged 30, of Hendon, N.W., Guilty of attempting to pervert the course of public justice and Norman Harry Beach, aged 43, solicitor, of Kilburn High Road, N.W., Guilty of aiding and abetting him. Beach was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment and Owens to six month's imprisonment. Beach and Owens were solicitor and client, and both had pleaded Not Guilty to the charges against them. The jury failed to reach a verdict on charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice. Mr. Justice German discharged the jury from giving a verdict on that count. Owens, according to the prosecution, was tried at Middlesex Sessions on November ijth on a charge of being under the influence of drink when in charge of a car. He was convicted and sentenced. Beach was Owen's solicitor, and it was alleged that they conspired to take steps to prevent wit nesses from identifying Owens as he stood in the dock. When he appeared in the Sessions Court, it was stated, Owens wore a hired black suit with striped trousers and wore a wig. Mr. Justice Gorman's summing-up lasted five and a quarter hours. When passing sentence on Beach the Judge said : " Your position is, of course, different from that of Owens. You are a solicitor of the Supreme Court charged peculiarly and particularly by virtue

of that position with doing nothing to pervert the course of public justice. . . Of course a solici tor is entitled to be zealous but the finding of the jury means not merely that you have been over- zealous but that you have in fact, as a solicitor, aided and abetted the commission of the offence of perverting the course of public justice. I think in considering your case I am entitled, and I do, to pay regard to the whole of the circumstances, but you must realize that it is really quite dreadful for a solicitor to act in the way in which the jury have decided that you acted. (R. v. Owens and Beach— Times, ist June, 1957). " in wilful default " in delaying to release a mortgage. A contract for the sale of premises in Fairview, Dublin contained the usual clause providing for payment of interest by the purchaser if from any cause whatever other than the .wilful default of the vendor, the purchase was not completed on the date fixed for completion. The purchaser was allowed into possession under a caretaker's agree ment. Owing to the difficulty in communicating with a mortgagee who resided in Cairo, for the purpose of releasing a mortgage on the property, the purchase was not completed until more than a year after the date fixed for completion. Shannon J. held that the vendor was in wilful default, as he knew or should have known the position as to the delay in releasing the mortgage before he entered into the contract, and therefore the purchaser was not liable to the vendor for interest due to laches. (O'Byrne v. Robinson (1955-56) Ir. Jur. Rep. 46). The equitable lien of a solicitor conducting a criminal appeal takes priority over the debt of a judgment- creditor. The costs of an appeal in the case of " The People v. Barry Blogh." (reported at 90. I.L.T.R. 75) were awarded by the Court of Criminal Appeal to the solicitor of the successful appellant. The appellant had left the jurisdiction, before the judg ment of the Court, without paying his costs. The amount of taxed costs came to £203 45. 6d. and the Temple Press had on February i7th, 1956, obtained judgment against Blogh for £230 i8s. 3d. and costs. The Temple Press, hearing of the taxation in favour of Blogh, obtained a conditional order of garnishee, and moved to have the order 16 A purchaser allowed into possession before completion is not liable to pay interest; because vendor was