The Gazette 1982

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUS T 1982

Correspondence

The Editor, Gazette I.L.S.I. Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.

4th October 1982

Charles R.M Meredith, Esq., Solicitor, C/o The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. 2nd July, 1982 Dear Mr Meredith, I have been shown a copy of the Incorporated Law Society's Gazette for October 1981 containing an article by you under the title "The Legal Problems of Ageing" and as I was for a number of years an official in the office of the Registrar of Wards of Court (and previously in the office of the Registrar to The Chief Justice) in Dublin, I found your article of much interest and I am taking the liberty of writing to you. In particular, I was surprised to see that in both the Republic and Northern Ireland the provisions of sections 13, 14, 15, 18 and 68 of the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1871, have apparently remained substantially unaltered since their enactment, except as to the monetary limits mentioned in section 68. I like your suggestion to the effect that every case, regardless of the capital value of the estate or its income (but presumably excluding those under section 103), should be capable of being dealt with under section 68. Quite a long time ago (1930) I published a small volume "Law and Practice in Lunacy in Ireland" dealing with these matters and, had it then occurred to me, I might well have made the suggestion myself. While in the Registry, and later while in practice at the Bar, I had occasion to participate in several of these lunacy inquisitions with juries under the Act, and my experience was that in such cases juries are mistakenly inclined to treat the matter as a criminal trial, requiring that the appropriate standard applicable is proof of insanity beyond all reasonable doubt. Indeed I recall one case, heard before the then Registrar (the late John Muldoon K.C.), where the alleged lunatic, who was obviously mentally very deficient, was declared by the jury not to be of unsound mind, where-upon the Registrar, in closing the proceedings, told him (quite correctly) that he was probably the only person then in Court who had ever been expressly found by a jury to be sane! With kind regards and congratulations upon your article.

Re. Solicitors Golfing Society

Dear Sir, I intend making some research into the general history and foundation of the above Society and would be obliged to receive from members any information whatsqever concerning the Society viz. press cuttings, photographs, score cards, names of winners, venues of outings etc. It appears that the Irish Solicitor's Golfing Society was in fact founded on 7th October 1920 at a Meeting held in Portmarnock Golf Club. The purpose of the Society was to bring together in the field of Golf members of the Solicitors Profession throughout Ireland. The first Officers elected were President: C. St. G. Gamble, Pres. I.L.S.I., Captain: J. B. Moore, Committee: Thomas F. Monks, Basil Thompson, Paul A. Brown, R. G. Warren and T. Earley, Hon. Secretary: H. Horan. I have a Booklet which gives the names of the Presidents and Captains from 1920 to 1933 and which also contains some of the rules, the winners of the various cups and a list of members, any further information would be very welcome. Thanking you in anticipation,

Yours sincerely, Gerard M. Doyle, Solicitor,

Rutledge Doyle & Co., 51 Lower O'Connell St., Dublin 1.

The Editor, Law Society Gazette, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.

17th August, 1982

Re: Feeding the Estoppel

Dear Madam, We will all be pleased with the Recommendation of the Joint Committee of Building Societies Solicitors and the law Society published in the June 1982 issue of the Gazette that no Deed of Rectification be required where a Deed of Release is dated subsequent to the Deed of Assignment and that the doctrine of Feeding the Estoppel operates and soforth. The recommendation mentions that the legal profession has been crying out for years to have Releases operate like Vacates. I think I can claim to have been the first of our profession to champion this (? lost) cause. In the course of an address as then President to the A.G.M. of November 1969 I said:—

Yours sincerely, L.G.E. Harris, P.O. Box 43798 Nairobi, Kenya.

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