The Gazette 1967/71
scene of jury had seen photographs as it was then, had changed considerably since October last. This could well be a material point in the case, they said. The second point was that they (the three defence counsel) had been discussing the case while walking at the side of the courthouse at lunch time. They noticed a group of people in a downstairs room and these could have been the jury. The window was open and their conversation might have been overheard. The judge said the proper course for him was to discharge this jury, and he did so on the grounds that the bus had gone past the material point on a number of days. At the moment he was saying nothing about the position with regard to the jury room, except that, in future trials, the jury might be kept in an upstairs room. He also suggested that jury keepers should be placed outside so that nobody would pass in the vicinity. The judge went on to say he did not think it would be fair to the accused to swear in another jury at this sitting of the Commission. He referred to the publicity the trial had been given—some evidence given in the abence of the jury had been published—and said it would be in the minds of any juror sworn from the jury panel. He adjourned the trial until the autumn sitting of the City Commission in Belfast, and refused applications for bail on behalf of the three accused. "It is a very serious charge, and J do not consider it a case in which bail could be granted," he said. But he agreed the accused men could see their relatives. When the jury returned, the judge told them of the situation. There was a possibility of a miscarriage of justice and a wrongful impression being created in the minds of the jury. He regretted the time, trouble and work that had been wasted as a result of dis continuing the trial. He discharged the jury from any further service for ten years. —Irish Independent, ll/6/'70 the murder, of which the solicitor accounts A solicitor who transferred his client's account from one Dublin branch of a bank *•' --»1-~- between July and October 1958. had lodged £2,633 odd to the credit of the client's account: at the same time, he withdrew some sums from the client's account not authorised bv the Solicitors Accounts Regulations 1955, and in October 1958 lodged £863 of his own money in the client's account. Under the Solicitors' Act 1954, the Incor porated Law Society, if satisfied that a solicitor is dishonest, may applv to the High Court for an order directing that a specified bank shall not, without leave, make pavment out of a banking account kept in such bank in the name of a solicitor or of a firm: such an order was made in this matter on 17th October 1958, the solicitor was adjudicated a bankrupt. There was then £1 396 outstanding in client's account and claims amountnig to £2.495 have been admitted in the Bank CURRENT LAW DIGEST INCLUDING IRISH CASES BANKRUPTCY Order of payment of client's moneys in bankrupt
ruptcy. The principle however is that, if lodged in repect of a client exceeds the the bankruptcy, under Section the Solititors Act 1954, the balance must be used to satisfy the claims of all other clients whose moneys have been lodged to the exclusion of a client who has contributed a large um of monev. The official assignee was duly appointed a trustee of the client account, and has now asked for a decision on two questions :— 1. Whether the sum of £1,396 to credit in client's account belongs fa) to the client's creditors whose mnoeys were most recently lodged in the account or (b) to all the client creditors in rationable proportions. 2. Whether the sum of £863, which the solicitor had lodged in client's account separately from his own moneys, belongs (a) to the client creditors whose moneys were most recently lodged or (b) to all the client creditors in rateable proportions. The English case of "In Re A Solicitor" (1952) Ch. decided that when a solicitor becomes bankrupt the client's account is properly held in trust for another person. Held, that, on the adjudication of a solicitor, the Official Assignee does not get any valid claim to the moneys standing to the credit of a client account, until all the claims of the clients in respect of their monies lodged have been satisfied. ( " ere is no corresponding leglislation in England to Section 68 of the Solicitors Act 1954. As to the sum of £863, it can only be inferred that the solicitor intended this to be a replacement of part of the moneys which he u ad wrongfully withdrawn. Held, the sum standing to the credit of a client should be applied in paying the claims of these creditors whose moneys were most recently lodged immediately prior to the bankruptcy. This applied to the sum £1,396. As to the £863, it should be dealt with on the basis as part of a general amount to the credit of that account. (In re A.B. a Bankrupt Solicitor — Kenny J. — unreported — 8th December 1969 CONFLICT OF LAWS Decisions in Arbitration Clause as to which law to apply should prima facie be left to arbitrator The House of Lords (Lord Reid, Morris, Wilberforce, and Diplock and Viscount Dilhorne) held that the presence of a clause providing for arbitration in London in a contract with substantial foreign connexions which '' • to state positively the intention of the parties to the proper law of the contract does not eive rise to a conclusive presumption may be rebutted where, on any challenge as to the proper law, it is shown that the contract has its closest connection with the law of another country. Lord Wilberforce in so deciding regretted that in the present case the foreign parties, after choosing English arbitrators, should have been subjected
55
Made with FlippingBook