Innes v M'Donald
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 19 October 1899 |
| Date | 19 October 1899 |
| Docket Number | No. 4. |
| Court | Court of Session |
Ld. Kyllachy, Lord President, Lord Adam, Lord M'Laren, Lord Kinnear.
Administration of JusticeLaw-AgentDuly qualifiedCertificateExpensesLaw-Agents and Notaries Public (Scotland) Act, 1891 (54 and 55 Vict. c. 30), secs. 2 and 3Stamp Act, 1891 (54 and 55 Vict. c. 39), sec. 43.
The Law-Agents Act, 1891, enacts, sec. 3, that no costs on account of or in relation to any act or proceeding done or taken by any person who acts as a law-agent without being duly qualified so to act shall be recoverable in any action by any person or persons whomsoever.
The Stamp Act, 1891, enacts, sec. 43, that any person who acts or practises as a solicitor or law-agent in any Court without having in force at the time a duly stamped certificate shall incur a fine of fifty pounds and shall be incapable of maintaining any action for the recovery of any fee or disbursement.
Held that an enrolled law-agent who had acted as agent in a case without having in his possession a duly stamped certificate was not duly qualified to act as a law-agent in the sense of sec. 3 of the Law-Agents Act, 1891, and that the party for whom he had acted and who had been found entitled to expenses could not recover them from the opposite party.
Mrs Helen Potts or Innes raised an action of count, reckoning, and payment against Alexander M'Donald, in which, after sundry procedure, the Lord Ordinary, on 28th October 1898, decerned against the defender for payment to the pursuer of 33,12s. 6d., and found the pursuer entitled to expenses, and remitted the account thereof to the Auditor to tax and report.
Under this remit the Auditor taxed the account of the pursuer's expenses at 95, 0s. 11d., and to his report subjoined the following note*:At the audit it was contended by the defender's agents that the whole of the pursuer's expenses should be disallowed. For the period to 29th September 1898 the business was undoubtedly conducted by Mr Andrews, who had not a law-agent's certificate. Thereafter Mr Spink, S.S.C., appears to have acted as agent, but the defender's agents allege that he merely lent his name, and that the business, in point of fact, continued to be done by Mr Andrews as before. In these circumstances they contended, founding on a decision by Justice North in re Sweeting, 19th January 1898, 1 Chancery, 1898, p. 268, that there is no legal claim either by the pursuer or by her agent for any part of the expenses, whether consisting of charges or outlays.
The Auditor has not felt himself entitled, under the remit to him, to deal with such questions; but to assist the Lord Ordinary he may state that the taxed amount of expenses to 29th September 1898 inclusive is 77, 8s. 5d., whereof charges 43, 17s. 2d., and...
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia
-
K.K. v. M.M.,
...2022-01-25T18:33:27Z Privileged 16861b73-5cbe-4d18-a20b-5e7c210021be cddc1229-ac2a-4b97-b78a-0e5cacb5865c 79e56a94-c274-47f1-8db9-2f6f4e8f8a86 6 pt 2 2 false false false EN-CA JA X-NONE 0