This day is published, price 3s., by Post, 3s. 6d. THE GENERAL ORDERS OF THE COURT OF CHANCERY, dated the 31st of July, 1851, under the Chancery Regulation Act, 1850, as amended, and the MASTERS' GENERAL the Practice as now in Cause PETITIONS; an Analytical Index. By WILLIAM SMITH, Esq., Barrister.at-Law. CHITTY'S EQUITY INDEX. Being a Digest On PR under the ablished comments and Observations, and showing Equity Reports in the ENGLISH and IRISH COURTS trom the earliest period. Third Edition. By JAMES MACAULY, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Just published, price 10s. Ed., free by post, Also by the same Author, price 4s., by Post, 4s. 6d., or, bound with the Orders, price 6s., by Post, 6s. 6d. HE COMMON LAW PROCEDURE THE COURT OF CHANCERY (IRELAND) RE THE ACT OF IRELAND, With Explanatory Commentary, Practical Notes, and Full Index, By WILLIAM D. FERGUSON Esq., Barrister-at-Law. "Mr. Ferguson, in the very able and lucid work before us, has presented the profession and the public with an accurate representation of the law as it now stands."-Dublin Evening Post. "The present treatise is deserving of the reputation which Mr. Fergu. son has acquired by his previous works."-Saunders. "Systematically compiled and arranged, most accurately and studiously noted, and fully elucidated by authorities."-Daily Express. His views are entirely in unison with our own.”—Irish Jurist. "Mr. Ferguson has rendered good service to the general public, as well as to the legal profession, by the lucid mauner in which he has placed Mr. Whitessde's Reform Measure before them. The Publisher, Mr. Milliken, has not been wanting on his part. The volume, for neatness and clearness of type, is creditable to the Irish press.”—Evening Mail, "The book is a very valuable one to both professions, for Mr. Ferguson may be safely relied on as guide to the new practice.Freeman's Journal. Price 58., by Post, 5s. 6d. GULATION ACT, 1850, with PRACTICAL COMMENTS and THE THE By EDWARD P. LEVINGE, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Price fs. 6d., by post 7s. PRACTICE OF THE CIVIL BILL COURTS in Ireland. As altered by the statute 14 & 15 Vic. c. 57, with an appendix of several statutes relating to the law between landlord and tenant, and to the law of evidence; with a Commentary, comprising the decisions upon the re-enacted sections of the previous Acts of the Civil Bill code, and the analogous sections of the County Courts Acts, (England) with a copious Index. And the Rules, Orders, and Regulations prepared by the Assistant Barristers, with Observations, &c. By JOHN BLACK. HAM, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Price 4s. by Post 4s. 6d. A DIGEST of the ACT TO AMEND THE LAWS which Regulate the QUALIFICATION and REGISTRATION of PARLIAMENTARY VOTERS IN IRELAND, &c., (13 and 14 Vic. c. 69), collated with the more important provisions of former Acts still in force, relating to the subject, with a Copious Index and Forms. By SAMUEL V. PEET, Esq., Barrister.at.Law. Dublin: EDWARD J. MILLIKEN, Law Bookseller and Publisher, 15, College Green. DUBLIN, DECEMBER 3, 1853. Re 25 COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH-(continued): plevin-Poor Rate-Effect of conveyance from Incumbered Estates Court-12 & 13 V. c. 77, COURT OF COMMON PLEAS: 26 IN RE HUNGERFORD. 26 THE recent case of Manley v. Boycot, (2 Ellis & Blackburn, 46), has an important bearing on the law of bills of exchange and promissory notes. The question involved related to the liability of a joint maker of a promissory note, to whom no conside ration had passed. The action was by payee against the joint and several makers of a promissory note, payable on demand. The plea averred that the note was the joint and several note of George Friend and the defendant; that the defendant made the note as the surety, and at the request, and for the accommodation of Friend, and that there never was any other value or consideration ever existing for his (the defendant's) making or paying the said note, all of which was always well known to the plaintiffs. The plea went on to aver the giving of time by the plaintiffs to Friend, upon which latter fact the replication took issue. The jury having found for the defendant upon the issue joined, the plaintiff afterwards moved for judgment non obstante veredicto. It was not attempted, on the part of the defendant to question the law as laid down in Fentum v. Pocock, (5 Taunt. 192,) which authority has been since followed in a long series of cases in England. Carstairs v. Rolleston, (5 Taunt. 551); Price v. Edmunds, (10 B. & Will-Construction-Resi 20 duary clause-Subsequently acquired real estate. 29 COURT OF EXCHEQUER: M'DONNELL U. MALONE. Pleading-Scire Facias WHITMORE V. LAMBERT. Pleading-DuplicityForeign judgment .......... 34 36 C. 578); Harrison v. Courtauld, (3 B. & Ad. 36); Smith v. James, (2 Ellis & Black. 50, n.); and in this country the case of Gray v. Baker, (13 Ir. L. R. 506; s.c. 2 Ir. Jur. 307.) The principle decided in Fentum v. Pocock was, that nothing could, as against a holder for value, discharge the acceptor of a bill, (and by a parity of reasoning, the maker of a promissory note,) except payment, or a release. It appeared also in that case, that the holder took the bill from the drawer, without knowing that it was an accommodation bill, and was only informed of that circumstance after it had been presented for payment and refused. Sir J. Mansfield, C.J. however, said, that even "if the holder had known in the clearest manner, at the time of his taking the bill, that it was merely an accommodation bill, it would make no manner of difference; for he who accepts a bill, whether for value, or to serve a friend, makes himself in all events liable as acceptor, and nothing can discharge him but payment or release." In Manley v. Boycot it was ingeniously attempted by counsel for the defendant, while admitting the fundamental principle established in Fentum v. Pocock, to evade the authority of that case, by the fact that it was admitted on the pleadings in the case then before the court, that the plaintiffs who were payees, always had notice of the circumstances under which the note was made. They contended that the decision in Fentum v. Pocock, so far as it i PROFESSION OF ATTORNEY AND regarded the fact of such notice, was extra-judicial, ADMISSION OF BARRISTERS TO THE as having been pronounced on a supposed state of facts. It was argued, that there was nothing in the law opposed to the qualification of the THE case of In re M'Nally, decided by the Court of Exchequer on the 25th of November, the last effect of a note by external circumstances, as, for day of the past term, is of great importance to the example, it might be shewn that value was not ac- bar, the attorneys, and the public. The brother tually received, though the note stated such to have of the lamented gentleman who met his death by been the case. They accordingly contended, that, the melancholy casuality on the Great Southern and Western Railway, applied to the court to be under the circumstances of express notice, a quali- admitted as an attorney, without serving any apfied title only to sue was given to the payee, who prenticeship, and under somewhat similar cirought not to have dealt with the principal without cumstances to those relied upon by Mr. Symes, whose case is within the recollection of most of our the consent of the surety. The judgment of the court readers. The applicant, Mr. McNally, had been a was pronounced in favour of the plaintiff, entirely practising Barrister for 12 years, is a Master of confirming the above dictum in Fentum v. Pocock, Arts of Trinity College Dublin, and in other reand putting the law on a clear and satisfactory basis. Spects was qualified for undertaking the legal business of an attorney's office. He deposed, Lord Campbell, C. J. in delivering judgment says, by affidavit to the facts, that he had been inti"The bona fide holder of a bill or note cannot be mately acquainted and conversant with the seveprejudiced in the rights which he prima facie has, ral suits in his deceased brother's office, that the several clients, interested in the further progress according to the terms of the instrument, by know- of those suits, were most anxious that he should ledge subsequently communicated to him after he be continued in their management and control; has become the holder of it, or even by knowledge, that he was disinclined to abandon his own profes which he has at the time he takes it, if there is no sion, but that these circumstances coupled with an evidence of a special agreement, at the time when widow and children of the deceased, who were anxiety to realise the costs for the benefit of the he takes it, to affect the rights and liabilities of the mainly dependant upon these sources for their parties. No parol evidence can be received of any subsistence, induced him to make the application. agreement inconsistent with what appears on the Mr. J. D. Fitzgerald, Q. C., urged the application on the grounds of the melancholy fatality, the fitface of the instrument, as that a bill drawn payable ness of the applicant, and the inherent jurisdiction at three months shall not be payable till the expi- which the court possessed to make the order, as es ration of four months; but evidence may be given tablished by the case of In re Symes, (7 Ir. Eq. by parol of an agreement at the time a bill is drawn the Law Society, with whom was Mr. J. Clarke, Rep. 339.) The Attorney General on behalf of and indorsed, which is consistent with the written ably and temperately opposed the application on instrument; as, for example, that a bill is indorsed the grounds that such a precedent was a dangerous and handed over for a particular purpose, without one, and calculated to interfere seriously with the giving the party the usual rights of indorsee of the rights of the members of the profession of at torney and the claims of the many young gentlebill. But, if the payee of a joint and several pro- men who were serving an arduous, tedious, and missory note, made in the common form, by two, expensive apprenticeship, and whose prospects of may be placed in the same situation of treating the business must necessarily be diminished by the abone as surety for the other, this can only be by otherwise generally disseminated through the restraction by one individual, of what might be his express consent to do so when the note was de-gularly qualified members of the profession; that livered to him." This decision is perfectly consistent with the recent case of Salmon v. Webb, (3 H. L. C. 510,) in which it was held that the contemporaneous agreement which qualifies a contract must be between the parties and only the parties to the contract. Accordingly it may now be regarded as settled, that mere notice to, or knowledge by the payee or indorsee of a bill or note, even ab initio, that the acceptor or maker stands in the position of a surety is of no avail for the protection of the lat-time strongly expressed an opinion that this case should not be regarded as an authority in any case of the like nature. Fully concurring, as it did, in the propriety of the arguments urged by counsel for the Law Society, it stated that the almost unprecedented and extraordinary nature of the fata ter, unless the former be a party to the arrangement by which the latter lends his name, and expressly assent to the qualification of his liability. in most instances practising attorneys had brothers, cousins and sous members of the bar, who were entrusted with the management of suits in their offices, and if a precedent of this kind were made, that it would give a sanction to a claim on the part of every barrister whose relation might happen to be suddenly called away by any unforeseen visitation of Providence. The court, with considerable reluctance on the part of some of its members, were ultimately unanimous in admitting the applicant; but at the same lity, coupled with the coincidence of the fitness of the applicant, alone induced it to make the order. That these circumstances and coincidences | were very unlikely to occur in any future case, and that it therefore could not apprehend the consequences which counsel for the Law Society so reasonably apprehended. That if such consequences were likely to ensue, the court would be very slow indeed to grant the application. We confess that we look with considerable jealousy on any attempt on the part of either profession to entrench on the privileges of the other, and we fully participate in the laudable anxiety evinced by that highly respectable body, the Law Society, in preserving its profession from the encroachments of persons who have committed themselves for better or worse to another branch. No doubt the tendency of modern legislation is towards an amalgamation of the two professions, but until that shall have been fully and completely carried out, we deprecate any anticipation of it in particular instances; still in this case we see no reason to apprehend any consequences of the kind referred to: and we hope an occasion may never again occur involving the painful exigency of the present G. M. case. FURTHER DIRECTIONS* OF THE INCUMBERED ESTATES' COMMISSIONERS, UNDER STATUTE 16 & 17 Vic. c. 64. 18th November, 1853. In any case where a lease in perpetuity is ordered to be sold, the solicitor having the carriage of the proceedings, shall, either before, or at the time of applying for the order to settle a rental, or at such other time as shall be approved of by the Commissioner having the charge of such matter, lay a statement of facts before such Commissioner, containing all pecessary information respecting such lease, and the name of the landlord, or successive landlords, if there be more than one superior lease in perpetuity, under which the premises are holden, and the names and the ages of the several cestui que vies, so far as the same can be ascertained, and the times of the deaths of such of them as are dead, and all such other information as the Commissioner shall in each case require; and thereupon, in case it shall be considered advisable by the Commissioner that a conversion should take place under the Renewable Leasehold Conversion Act, he will grant a conditional order to that effect, and direct upon whom such order is to be served, and such conditional order shall, as far as practicable, contain a declaration or statement, Firstly. As to the amount computed to be due for arrears of rent, receivers' fees, costs of proceedings, if any, for recovery of such rent, making the proper allowance for poor rate, &c. Secondly. The amouut due for fines, fees, and interest, in order to entitle the tenant to a renewal. Thirdly. The amount of the proposed future fee-farm rent. Fourthly. The covenants, reservations, &c., proThe Schedule of Forms, accompanying the "Further Directions," will appear in our next number. posed to be commuted under the Renewable Leashold Conversion Act, and the proposed additional rent, in respect of such commutations. And such conditional order shall also contain such other particulars as the Commissioners granting the same shall direct, and shall contain, in a schedule, a clear account of the computation of arrears of rent and of fines. In case any party shall be desirous of showing cause against such conditional order, and shall serve notice for that purpose, the application to make absolute such conditional order, shall be moved before the Commissioner by whom the said conditional order shall have been granted; all parties being at liberty to have such application reheard as of course before the full court. The conditional order is to be drawn up by the registrar in the accompanying form; and in order to avoid any just exception being taken to it by the landlord, the materials for the preparation of such order should be ascertained, and the necessary computations made, with great care. Where any sub. stantial cause is established by the landlord, the costs of the conditional order will be disallowed, unless the Commissioner should award such costs, or any part thereof, on being satisfied that reasonable exertions were made to enable the registrar to prepare the conditional order correctly. A copy of the statement of facts on which the conditional order is grounded, and where the amount of the fee-farm rent has been directed to be ascertained by the notary, a copy of the case, and opinion thereon, are to be served on the owner of the reversion, along with the conditional order; but these need not be served on the other parties directed to be served with the order, unless the Commissioner shall so direct; but the statement of facts must be lodged in the office of the general clerk before the issuing of the conditional order. In ordinary cases, the addition to the fee farm rent, in lieu of the renewal fines, may be ascertained from the accompanying table; and any addition for commuted covenants will be fixed by the Commissioner. Where the lease to be sold is not held directly under the fee, but there are superior leases, it will be necessary that the final order for conversion should extend to all the leases, so as to enable the Commissioners to convey the fee to the purchaser ; but it will ordinarily be desirable to make separate conditional orders for each lease. The final or absolute order for conversion is to be drawn up by the registrar, having regard to the conditional order or orders, on which it is founded, and to the Commissioner's fiat (if any) made in relation thereto, and is to be submitted to the Commissioner for his approval before passing the seal of the court; and such absolute order shall contain the tenor of all the covenants and agreements which are to continue subsisting on the part of the owner of the rent, and the owner of the land respectively. The substance of the order for conversion should be stated on the rental, which shall also provide for the execution by the purchaser of a proper deed of covenant, in case the Commissioners shall so direct. The landlord may, after the sale, apply for any sum found due to him for rent, fines and fees; and any further rent, fines, fees and interest, which may have accrued since the date of the order for conversion; and shall be entitled to a duplicate of the Commissioners' conveyance. The present directions are to apply to any estate which has not yet been posted; and with regard to leases now posted for sale, or already sold, but not conveyed to the purchaser, the necessary proceedings for conversion may be taken by the purchaser, if he shall think proper, at his own expense. Encumbered Estates Court. CONDITIONAL AND ABSOLUTE ORDERS, FROM THE 1ST OCTOBER.-(Continued.) |