The Gazette 1981

APRIL 1981

GAZETTE

For Your Diary . . . 2 July 1981: Solicitors' Golfing Society: President's Prize Golf Outing. Milltown Golf Club. 10-11 July 1981: Law Society Seminar: Computers for Solicitors. Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. 14 July 1981: Law Society Presentation of Parchments, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. 24-28 August 1981: Young Lawyers International Association XIX Congress, Dublin. Full programme now - available from Secretariat, XIX Congress of AIJA, 44 Northumberland Rd., Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Tel. 688244. 1-4 September, 1981: Law and Society in Ireland: An International Conference, Trinity College, Dublin. Speakers: Professor William J. Chambliss on law and process, Professor Albert K. Cohen on law and crime, Dr. Masud Hoghughi on juvenile justice and social control, Professor Nils Christie on diversification of penal control, Chief Probation Officer Graham Smith on community corrections. Application forms are available from the Conference Organisers, School of Law, Trinity College, Dublin 2. 12 October 1981: Law Society Commencement of Sixth Professional Course. 28 October 1981: Law Society Presentation of Parchments, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. FAMILY HOME PROTECTION ACT Absence of Supporting Evidence to Spouses Consent The Conveyancing Committee has been asked for guidance by a number of practitioners as to the proper approach to be made by purchaser's solicitor where, on investigation of the title of an unregistered property, an assurance of a family home made after the 12th July, 1976 appears on the title and, although the assurance bears a consent completed by the vendor's spouse, there is no supporting evidence identifying the consenting party as the spouse of the vendor. The Committee is satisfied that the present practice of seeking a statutory declaration from the vendor and the consenting spouse exhibiting a copy of their marriage certificate to evidence the identity of the consenting party was not adopted immediately after the introduction of the Act and takes the view that, in the ordinary way, a pur- chaser's solicitor should not, where there is a spouse's consent endorsed on an assurance of the family home executed prior to the 1st January 1978, and no supporting evidence of the identity of the consenting spouse is available, requisition any further evidence. I 15

to make proper provision for the Plaintiff in accordance to receive a one-third share of the testator's estate would not constitute proper provision. In her view "Farming is the only occupation known to the plaintiff jince the age of 14. He was always encouraged to believe that the farm would be his. He was dis- couraged from leaving home when he married. Therefore the testator owed a moral duty to the plaintiff to make proper provision for him and provide him with a means of livelihood from farming reason- ably comparable with what he enjoyed before the death of the testator. The life style which they enjoyed was not one of luxury. It was one of hard unremitting work. It would not have discharged the testator's moral duty to le^ve the minimum amount of land from which a living might or might not be wrested. Adequacy is not the test. There must be proper provision in accordance with the testator's means. The living which the plaintiff could make from the land should in this case be reasonably comparable with what he enjoyed prior to his father's death." Having regard to the circumstances of the plaintiff and of the two defendants and of the manner in which the testator's lands were laid out, the learned Judge made an allocation of the testator's lands and other assets which gave the Plaintiff, first, the house and all its contents, all personal effects of the deceased, all farm machinery, the car and all the stock on the farm and, second, the major part of the lands. The remaining land, which the Judge considered would cause least damage to the farm by its loss, she directed should be transferred to the defendants, free from incumbrances, as tenants in common. This, she considered, would leave the defendants with a reasonably saleable unit and she further allocated to the defendants all the mones to credit of the deceased's bank accounts. Having considered whether further distinction should be made between the two defendants, the learned Judge concluded that it should not. Finally, the learned and humane Judge directed that the various parties should bear their own costs. • DISTRICT COURT LICENSING APPLICATIONS Requirements in Relation to Special Exemptions The Dublin Solicitors' Bar Association has been liaising with the President of the District Court as to his require- ment concerning certain information in all Applications for Special Exemptions. The President has indicated that in relation to any premises in respect of which a Special Examption is sought, he will wish to know what particular room or area of the premises is intended to be the subject of the Special Exemption, e.g. the main restaurant, the first floor functions room, the "Georgian Boudoir," etc.