The Gazette 1967/71

ings and soforth. He duly obtained this sanction, attended and took up the title deeds and paid them their fee therefor, signing an accountable receipt. As the building society had not heard of Mr. Byrne's death the solicitor reminded them that the policy of insurance on the house should be appro priately amended. Anticipating correctly that ulti mately the deed would have to be lodged for adjudication, he obtained all the necessary data from the deed, instructed a valuer whose report he subsequently received and paid for. There was cor respondence between the solicitor, this valuer and the client about arrangements for inspection of the property. On reading the title the solicitor observed that the local authority would have to be joined in the proposed deed by virtue of the lease in question and he drafted the deed which had as parties Mrs. Byrne, the building society, the local authority and Miss Byrne. As this deed had to recite among other things the existence of the mortgage and the amount then outstanding by way of mortgage, certain blanks had to be left therein. Although he tried to keep the deed as short as he could, the draft filled three pages of brief paper. He sent the draft deed to the local authority for approval and having got it back with certain amendments and having satisfied himself about these he had the deed sent to the building society's solicitors who returned it approved. He then had the deed engrossed and drew a memorial and took the precaution of taking an extra copy of the deed because he knew it would have to be lodged for adjudication of stamp duty. He sent the deed to the local authority for execution accompanied by the draft for comparison and at the same time took the precaution of writing to the housing branch and obtained a letter from them consenting to the assignment in so far as a mortgage was now being taken over by a new mortgagor. Having paid the solicitor to the local authority his fee in connection with the draft deed and the execution of the engrossment and so forth and having retrieved same the solicitor called in his two clients and had the deed executed by both and the memorial by one of them he paid the com missioner's fee on the latter document and he sent these documents together with those which he had previously taken up on accountable receipt to the solicitor for the building society. However, while he was engaged on the foregoing 108

duce a barrister generally better qualified when he is called to the Bar. If a few students having no intention of entering practice but able to acquire the title of barrister are now prevented from so doing no harm will have been done. The council should not be criticized for raising its fees in order properly to carry out the scheme. A Dean of Faculty and several full-time teaching staff have recently been appointed for the first time, and if standards of education are raised so must the cost, since the council receives no assistance from public funds. It is to be hoped, however, that the need for such assistance will be strongly urged on the Government by the Lord Chancellor's com mittee. If it is in the public interest that an efficient legal profession be maintained public funds must be used to ensure that a potential barrister is not prevented from following his career solely through lack of means. MR. BYRNE^ who was a pensioner living in a small house in Dublin, died leaving no assets other than his house upon which there was a mortgage with a building society. His widow succeeded with the assistance of the Probate Office in extracting a grant to his will whereby he left the house to her. As his pension was very small his only child, who was a daughter and who had a job as a typist, had been paying most of the outgoings before his death. His widow had no income or prospect of work. Mrs. Byrne and her daughter called to their solicitor, handed him the Grant of Probate, and asked him to transfer the house to the daughter for natural love and affection subject to the amount outstanding on foot of the building society mortgage. Understandably, they made it clear to the solicitor that they thought this was a simple little transaction envisaging as they did that the solicitor would merely have to " draw up a simple little deed". Having taken these instructions the solicitor set about carrying them out. He wrote to the building society, notified them of his interest, asked them to make the title deeds available on accountable receipt and applied to the society to sanction the transaction giving details of the daughter's earn­ CROSS-SUBSIDISATION A true fable