The Gazette 1986

GAZETTE

sep T em BER 1986

Practice Notes Malicious Injuries (Amendment) Act, 1986

introduced for the first time provision for compensation for property taken from a building damaged by persons tumultuously and riotously assembled together. This provision is retained in the new sub-section (1) but with two major changes. Firstly, section 6 of the 1981 Act confines compensation for property taken to cases where the damage to the building or to the property within its curtilage exceeds £100.00; the new sub-section (1) applies this limit to the value of the property taken rather than to the amount of the damage caused. Secondly, under the 1981 provision compensation is payable for property taken where damage has been caused to building or property within its curtilage whether or not such taking was facilitated by the damage in question; under the new sub-section in order that property taken should be compensatable it will be necessary to show that the damage caused during the riot and tumult facilitated the taking of the property or entry to the building for the purpose of such taking. Section 5 substitutes a new section for section 7 of the 1981 Act which provides that it shall not be a defence to an application for compensation to show that the damage was caused by a person of unsound mind or by a child. The new section extends this provision to damage caused by persons acting under duress. • Domicile and Recognition of Foreign Divorces Act, 1985 This Bill, circulated in 1985, was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas on 25 June, 1986, and came into force on 2 October, 1986. The purpose of the Bill is to abolish the old common law rule according to which (as generally stated) the domicile of a married woman is in all cases the same as that of her husband and to provide instead that the domicile of married women shall be determined in the same way as that of any other adult. The Bill also makes provisions for two matters which are related to the existing rule. The first is the domicile of minor children of the spouses (contained in section 4) and the second is the recognition of foreign divorces (section 5). Section 5 (recognition of foreign divorces) This Section makes new provisions to replace the rule as to when divorces granted in other countries are recognised by the law of the State. The former rule (as generally stated) was that foreign divorce was recognised in the State if the spouses were, at the commencement of the divorce proceedings, domiciled in the country where the divorce was granted, or (possibly) if, although the divorce was granted in a different country from the country where they were domiciled, the divorce was recognised by the law of the country where they were domiciled. Since the former rule as to recognition of divorces depended on the rule that the

The Malicious Injuries (Amendment) Bill, 1986, has now been passed by both houses of the Oireachtas and become law on 15 July, 1986. The purpose of the Bill was to amend the scheme of compensation for malicious damage to property contained in the Malicious Injuries Act, 1981, so as to confine awards of compensation to damage caused by riot and by the activities of unlawful organisations and certain other kinds of organisations referred to in section 2. The Bill will only apply to damage or loss caused after the 15 July, 1986. Perhaps the most important section of the Act is the new section 2 which replaces section 5 of the 1981 Act and which reads: "1(a) Subject to the provisions of this section where damage, the aggregate amount of which exceeds £100.00, is caused to any property: (i) Unlawfully by one or more of a number (exceeding 2) of persons riotously assembled together, or (ii) As a result of an Act committed maliciously by a person acting on behalf of or in connection with an unlawful organisation, or (iii) As a result of an act committed maliciously by a person acting on behalf of or in connection with an unlawful organisation, or (iii) As a result of an act committed maliciously

by a person acting on behalf of or in connection with an organisation outside the State that engages in, or promotes, encourages or advocates the use of violence for the purposes related to the conduct of administration of the affairs of state or Northern Ireland the person who suffers the damage should be entitled to obtain compen- sation from the local authorities in accordance with the Malicious Injuries Acts 1981 and 1986."

There is a new provision in section 3(1) which allows a Chief Superintendent, once he is of opinion that the act from which damage resulted was committed maliciously by a person acting on behalf of or in connection with an organisation referred to in Section 5 of the Principal Act, to issue a Certificate which can be produced to the Court as evidence that the act was committed maliciously. Section 4 of the Malicious Injuries (Amendment) Act, 1986, substitutes a new Section for sub-section (1) (2) of Section 6 oi the 1981 Act. Section 6(1) of the 1981 Act

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