The Gazette 1967/71

a bonus of a substantial sum out of the purchaser's pocket in return for doing nothing at all. STANDARD REQUISITIONS ON TITLE Counsel has been instructed to settle a standard form of general requisition on title for the use of members. These will be on sale in due course. THE DUBLIN SOLICITORS' BAR ASSOCIATION At the Annual General Meeting of the Dublin Solicitors' Bar Association held on 14th October 1968 the following Officers and Council Members were elected :— President, Victor Wolfe; Vice-President, George A. Williams; Hon. Secretary, Miss Thelma King; Hon. Treasurer, E. Rory O'Connor; Hon. Audi tors, Patrick Glynn and Eamon J. Growley; Council Members, John Buckley, Gerard M. Doyle, Patrick Golden, Gordon Henderson, John P. A. Hooper, Thomas Jackson, Maurice Kenny, Richard Knight and David R. Pigot. COUNTY & CITY OF LIMERICK SESSIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION The Officers and Committee of the above Associa tion for the coming year are :— President, D. G. O'Donovan; Treasurer, Joseph Dundon; Secretary, D. G. O'Donovan (Junior). Committee, Thomas E. O'Donnell, Gordon A. Holmes, Michael B. O'Malley, James I. Sexton, Robert Cussen, James Dennison. IRISH ASSOCIATION OF JURISTS A meeting of the Association was held in the Clarence Hotel, Dublin on Monday, 19th Novem ber, 1968 at 8 p.m. The meeting was addressed by Mr. Scan McBride, S.C., the Secretary of the International Commission of Jurists, which has its headquarters in Geneva. Outlining the work of the International Commission Mr. McBride stated that it was the duty of lawyers in every country to press the government of the day to undertake legal reform. Despite Constitutional guarantees we in Ireland had no reason to be complacent; the maintenance of the Rule of Law was a developing concept and to accept the status quo without question or inquisition was the first step in social irresponsibility. In recent years the contribution of the national sections of the Association had assumed great importance. Mr. McBride praised the Austrian section who came SO

hardship to the purchaser. Counsel, in his com ments on this matter, pointed out that this has been a standard condition here and in England (prior to 1925) more or less from time imme morial. In the days when the legal estate was essential, as it was in England when there was no system of registration of deeds, a vendor could be put to very heavy expense in trying to trace and get in the legal estate when he might have been quite unaware that it was outstanding. Counsel points out that in Ireland today it is very seldom necessary to get in the legal estate, except where there are tenancies, or a possibility of trespass by someone claiming an adverse title, when the legal estate would be necessary to sus tain an ejectment. But as in most cases it is a bare legal estate, which will be barred in twelve years, the actual occasions where it has to be got in are few and far between. Counsel states that the conditions of sale are for the protection of the Vendor and if his solicitor omitted this condition and it cost the vendor money to get in the legal estate, the solicitor might be liable for negligence. He states that if this condi tion were omitted it would always have to be written in and the Society would have to attach a note to the new form pointing out the omission and stating that solicitors are advised, for their own protection, to insert this or a similar provision. The Council also sought the observations of counsel on the provision in clause 10 of the auc tion sale conditions, which entitles the vendor to rescind the sale if the Purchaser insists on an objection or requisition with which the vendor cannot comply, the purchaser being entitled, in that event, to the return of his deposit and a sum equivalent to auction fees paid by him. Counsel states that, in such case, the vendor could not recover the auction fees from the auctioneer be cause the latter has done all that he was em ployed to do. It is the vendor's fault if he chooses to put up property for sale without having had the title properly investigated. In this case the conditions are favourable to the pur chaser, but this is because he has no way of doing anything about it and he ought not to be made to suger for the vendor's lack of care. If it is desired to shift the burden, the condition would have to be amended to provide that the Pur chaser shall not be entitled to the return of any monies paid by him to the auctioneers by way of auction fee, but counsel pointed out that in such case the result might be that the vendor either deliberately or carelessly might be getting