In the Irish Courts
| Published date | 01 October 1954 |
| Date | 01 October 1954 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835401800408 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Irish Courts*
SUPREME
COURT
IN
EIRE
'AT
OR BEFORE
THE
TIME'
Veterinary Councilv. Corr
ST AT UT O RY provisions prescribing
the
time at or within
which an act is required to be done are mandatory:
Barker v. Palmer (8 Q.B.D. 9, 10).
The
respondent in
Veterinary Council v. Corr (1953,
I.R.
12) claimed, therefore,
that
the provisions relating to
the
time of giving notice of a
case stated should be literally construed and strictly complied
with. By s. 149 (I) (e) of
the
Income
Tax
Act, 1918 it is
enacted
that
"at
or before the time when he transmits
the
case to
the
High Court,
the
party requiring it shall send
notices in writing
...
together with a copy of
the
case to
the
other
party".
In
the
instant case,
the
appellants transmitted
to
the
High Court a case stated by
the
President of the Circuit
Court,
but
on the day on which it was so transmitted their
representative was delayed in court
and
did not reach
the
office of the Revenue Solicitor (the other party) until after
that
office was closed: he therefore delivered
the
required
notice
and
copy to
that
office on
the
following day.
When
the
case came before Maguire J. in the High Court,
the
learned
Judge accepted the respondent's contention
that
he
had
no
jurisdiction to hear
the
case as
the
mandatory statutory
procedure had not been followed. While expressing
"a
great
deal of sympathy with
the
appellants",
the
learned Judge
added:
"I
am not in a position, even if I wished to do so, to
relieve the appellants from
the
provisions of the statute,
and
I
must
give effect to
the
mandatory provisions of
the
section".
Upon
appeal to the Supreme Court, it was argued that, in
the
phrase
'at
or before the time', the word
'at'
cannot mean
'simultaneously',
that
it does
not
mean 'before' and therefore
•
The
Irish
Reports
have
got
out
of
hand
as
regards
time.
They
are
late as to
their
dates,
but
more
up
to
date
as to
their
cases.
The
Irish
Jurist
published
as for
1952
and
cited
"(1952)
Ir.
Jur."
report
a case
actually
decided
in 1954.
Cases
of
1954
will
thus
go
down
to
history
as
reported
in 1952.
Conversely,
the
Irish
Reports
for 1953
contain
reports
of
cases
decided
in
earlier
years.
353
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