Tag Archives: High Court

The High Court has awarded a Clare-based singer €64,300 in damages for injuries she sustained after she slipped and fell in a Limerick city supermarket. Rachel Prior, aged 32 years and known by her stage name of ‘Rachy P’, sued Dunnes Stores seeking damages for negligence for injuries she sustained after she slipped and fell to the ground at its outlet at Henry Street, Limerick on December 6, 2008 last. Ms Prior, who lives at Woodkawn, Brickhill West, Cratloe, claimed while shopping in Dunnes her feet shot out from under her and she fell forcefully onto her back after she came into contact with a white liquid- milk or cream- on the floor surface in the vicinity of the diary fridge. She claimed she suffered immediate pain. The court heard she suffered pain in her neck and lower back and other injuries as a result of the accident. Dunnes Stores had denied the claims. During the action the supermarket’s lawyers …

The finance manager of the world famous Dromoland Castle hotel has settled her High Court action aimed at preventing her purported dismissal. Orla Horgan applied to the High Court for an injunction preventing her employer, Dromoland Castle Holdings Ltd from terminating her employment as finance manager. She claimed she was being made “a scapegoat for fraud at the Five Star hotel” due to suspicious transactions carried out by another employee in the finance department which she had “nothing to do with”. Her lawyers had previously secured permission from the High Court for service of the proceedings at short notice on her employer. The matter returned before Mr Justice Paul Gilligan at the High Court today (Tuesday). Oisin Quinn, SC for Ms Horgan, said the action had been settled and could be struck out. Mark Connaughton, SC for Dromoland, said his side were consenting to the case being struck out. No details of the settlement, which are understood to be confidential, …

A WEST Clare woman has won a High Court order overturning a grant of permission for a development of four wind turbines near her home at Coore, near Mullagh. In a judgment strongly critical of absence of clarity and specificity in An Bord Pleanála’s grant of permission, Mr Justice Max Barrett said decisions of public bodies must be clear enough for people to decide if there is a legal basis to challenge them. “Proper planning was never intended to be, nor can it be allowed to become, a perk reserved for the few who can afford expert lawyers, with something less than best being the lot of the many who cannot,” he said  on Tuesday. Kathleen Connolly was “rightly insistent” there be full compliance with the law before a windfarm is planted by her homestead, he said. While the board had criticised her case as “opportunistic”, arguing it had “little or nothing to do with a bona fide concern for …

A woman left permanently disabled with severe back and other injuries after slipping on grapes while shopping in a Tesco store in Kilrush has been awarded €1.4m damages by a High Court judge. Mr Justice Anthony Barr made the award to Patricia Walsh (48), Shannondale Stud, Rehy, Carrigaholt, over the incident in the Tesco store at Kilrush, on August 28th 2012. A stay applies on the award pending an appeal on condition €500,000 is paid out now, plus 75% of Ms Walsh’s legal costs. Ms Walsh, represented by Edward Walsh SC and Pat Quinn SC, instructed by Carmody & Co Solicitors, sued Tesco Ireland which admitted liability on the first day of the case. It ran for seven days and involved evidence from 15 doctors among others. In his detailed judgment, the judge said it was clear, as a result of the fall, Ms Walsh suffered a serious injury to the muscles and ligaments of her lower back which caused …

AN environmentalist has lost his legal challenge to a grant of permission for a 2km bypass around Killaloe. Peter Sweetman, along with an environmental protection company, The Swans and the Snails Ltd, claimed the project, which includes construction of a 170 metre long bridge over the River Shannon, will result in the direct, permanent, and irreversible destruction of a woodlands habitat. The High Court, with Mr Justice Paul McDermott presiding, heard the habitat in question, an alluvial wet willow-alder-ash woodland, is located on the western side [Clare bank] of the proposed bridge. Mr Sweetman and the company argued permission for the project should never have been granted to Clare County Council by An Bord Pleanála. It was claimed the board failed to carry out an adequate assessment under the EU Habitats Directive. Mr Sweetman, of Bunahowen Cashel, County Galway, and the company, with an address at Rossport, South Ballina, County Mayo, claimed an environmental impact assessment carried out by the board …

THE Supreme Court has refused, on grounds including it does not make “futile orders”, to declare that planning decisions relating to a windfarm development on a mountain site at Derrybrien did not permit deforestation of more than 115,000 trees. The site was the scene of a massive bog slide in October 2003 when nearly half a million tonnes of peat and debris was displaced, causing considerable damage to the surrounding area and pollution to a nearby fishing river. Following a 2008 decision of the European Court of Justice that Ireland had not fulfilled its obligations under a 1985 EU Directive related to assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, a local residents group appealed in 2009 against the 2005 refusal of the High Court to grant injunctions stopping the deforestation. The Chief Justice said, while the Supreme Court was prepared to approach the appeal “on the assumption the planning permission did not cover or …

THE latest legal challenge by a County Clare man against the result of the same-sex marriage referendum has been dismissed by the High Court. Gerry Walshe, an electrician, of Lisdeen, Kilkee asked the High Court to quash the Referendum Returning Officer’s decision to certify the result last August, which had the effect of formally confirming the outcome of the ballot. In a ruling on Wednesday evening, Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan dismissed Walshe’s demands for several orders that would have frozen proposed new legislation currently before Dáil Éireann enabling same-sex couples to marry. The Judge described as misconceived Mr Walshe’s interpretation of Returning Officer Riona Ní Fhlanghaile’s statutory function to sign the certificate confirming the result. The Judge also awarded the State its legal costs against Mr Walshe, an application Mr Walshe had opposed. He also sought orders staying any further actions being taken in relation to the Same Sex Marriage referendum result until his case has been determined. Mr Walshe, …

A FRESH legal challenge is to be brought against the result of the same sex marriage referendum. The latest challenge has been brought by Mr Gerry Walshe, an electrician, from Lisdeen, Kilkee The Supreme Court last week refused to permit separate legal actions brought by both Mr Walshe and Mr Maurice Lyons from Callan in County Kilkenny bring further appeals against the rejection of their challenges to the Yes result of the same-sex marriage referendum. The court said, “It would not be necessary in the interests of justice that there be an appeal to the Supreme Court.” However in a new application, where Mr Walshe will ask the High Court for permission to bring proceedings against the State by way of judicial review, will be made before the duty Judge at today’s (Tuesday) vacation sitting of the Court. The latest action is understood to relate to the decision by the State to issue and sign the final referendum certificate in …