Incorporated Law Society of Ireland v Browne

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: District Court (Ireland)
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1961
• Date: 01 January 1961

(D.C.)

Incorporated Law Society of Ireland

and

Browne

Drawing or preparing of document relating to real or personal estate by unqualified person - Preparation by auctioneer of offer to purchase subject to conditions -Solicitors' Act, 1954, ss. 3 (1), 58, 77, 79.

By section 3 (1) of the Solicitors' Act, 1954, "unqualified person" is defined as meaning: —"(a) a solicitor who is not a solicitor qualified to practice, or (b) a person who is not a solicitor."Section 58 of the said Act, by its first sub-section, applies to, inter alia, "the drawing or preparing of a document relating to real orpersonal estate . . ." By sub-section (2) of that section it is provided that "an unqualified person who does an act to which this section applies, shall subject to sub-section (3) of this section, be guilty of an offence . . ." Sub-section (3) of that section provides that "certain acts should be exempt from the foregoing provisions of section 58," including "(a) an act not done either directly or indirectly for or in expectation of any fee," gain or reward and "(b) an act consisting merely of engrossing a document." Sub-section (4) of that section provides that the word "document" includes a document under seal and a document not under seal, but does not include, inter alia, a purely commercial or mercantile document. T.N., a person intending to purchase a licensed premises, made an offer to the defendant, a licensed auctioneer, to purchase such a property at Claremorris, which was on the defendant's...