Tag Archives: High Court

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Businessman Harry Crosbie 

Newstalk reports:

“Businessman Harry Crosbie has lodged High Court proceedings against the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). The court action calls on NAMA to stop pursuing any outstanding debt against him. The High Court case also calls for the removal of the receiver from the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre – and also looks for compensation for so called ‘leaks made by NAMA of personal information regarding his financial affairs’.”

Businessman Harry Crosbie lodges proceedings against NAMA (Newstalk)

Previously: Meanwhile, At The Commercial Court

So You Saw Harry Crosbie On The Saturday Night Show, Right?

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

wilson

[Former Garda John Wilson outside the Dáil in January]

John Wilson was not in uniform and off-duty when he attended a case in the presence of Walter and Genevieve Smith, who were co-defendants in a case being heard, in 2012.

Arising from this, he was found to have breached Garda regulations, after he refused to explain why he attended the court hearing.

Mr Wilson went to the High Court challenging this finding and this morning he lost this challenge.

Breaking News reports:

“The High Court has ruled that the garda authorities were entitled to ask John Wilson for an explanation as to why he sat beside the defendants during a court case while off duty.

“Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley notes that the trial involved a long running dispute between neighbours in an estate in Virgina Co Cavan and his attendance could impinge ‘upon the public perception of the force as a whole’

“She has found that Gda Wilson should have at least explained that his private life was at issue but instead he suggested a ‘degree of bad faith’ by asking what was being insinuated about him.”

Following the decision, Mr Wilson said:

“I will be considering today’s judgment very carefully with my legal team.”

Whistleblower Wilson loses High Court action (Breaking News)

Related: Whistleblower fights disciplinary findings (Irish Examiner)

Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

julesbaileybuttimer
[Jules Thomas, Ian Bailey and their solicitor Frank Buttimer outside the Four Courts in March 2012 after he won a two-year legal battle against his extradition to France over the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996.]

Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas’ civil action against the State is up for mention in the High Court this morning.

It comes as John Burke of RTÉ last night reported that 133 separate tape recordings from Bandon Garda Station have emerged of conversations between gardaí, witnesses and journalists relating to the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case.

Mr Burke said they were found last autumn following a discovery order made by Mr Bailey and Ms Thomas’ lawyers.

Mr Burke reported that 36 involve conversations between [fake witness] Marie Farrell and gardaí; 18 involve conversations with [informant] Martin Graham and gardaí; 42 involve conversations between journalists and gardaí; 37 involve conversations between gardaí and other members of the force, including senior garda officers; while at least one is a recorded conference call between local gardaí and senior gardaí in Dublin.

133 conversations in du Plantier case recorded (RTE)

UPDATE, from the High Court:

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Ah here.

Mix them up a bit.

President Higgins with, from left Bronagh O’Hanlon, Marie Baker and Max Barrett newly appointed judges of the High Court at the Aras this afternoon.

Name their political affiliations (not that there’s anything wrong with that), anyone?

Lines close at 7.15pm

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

CNI
Finally! It’s here.

After 25 years of providing courts news to the press for publication, Courts News Ireland have taken the bold step of creating an online courts news service for all.

Brian Kavanagh of C.N.I. writes:

“We are immensely proud to announce the launch of our website, a dedicated online platform for courts news which breaks new ground in the Irish media market. It is our first foray in to the digital sphere and part of an ambitious plan to bring comprehensive coverage of the Irish courts to our clients and to the public at large. For the first time people will have real-time access to courts news as it breaks and full access to reports as they are filed by our outstanding network of seasoned reporters”. The website embodies Ireland International News Agency’s dedication to excellence in reportage.”

 

Home Alone is a movie, not an alibi, we’re informed.

Courts News Ireland

Not BadThe Human Rights of Ireland website is reporting that a family of six will take a legal challenge against the system of direct provision in a case (N.M. and others V Minister for Justice and Equality, Minister for Social Protection, the Attorney General and Ireland).

The family, originally from Africa, includes a mother, father and their four children, who range in age from 20 to a few weeks. They have been living in direct provision for four and a half years.

Their challenge against the system of direct provision is three-fold:

1) The system of direct provision – which was set up 14 years ago, in 1999, and was supposed to see families or individuals live in it for six months – has never been given a statutory basis. As a consequence of that, the family are arguing that the direct provision allowance of €19.10 per week per adult and €9.60 per week per child is beyond the powers of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005.

2) The family are also arguing that the exclusion of asylees from any social welfare payments through the Habitual Residence Condition is unconstitutional.

3) The family are also challenging the ban on a right to work and seek work. They claim this ban is unconstitutional as the State is obliged to defend and vindicate the rights of individuals and the right to family and private life.

Dr Liam Thornton, of Human Rights Ireland and who is a lecturer in law and director of clinical legal education in University College Dublin, writes:

“It remains to be seen whether the applicants will be granted leave to challenge the system of direct provision.  Legal arguments aside, life in direct provision is dehumanising. There is a total lack of respect for dignity of individuals, a highly controlled environment, struggling to survive on a meagre financial allowance, an inability to feel included within the community, the inability of children to grow up in a normal family centred household, the stress, boredom and anxiety for the adults of having nothing to do all day. This is a day in the life of a direct provision resident. At a time when Ireland is rightly correcting historical wrongs of our past institutionalisation of women, the on-going scandal that is the system of direct provision, may finally be put under the spotlight.  The current government (including some Ministers who vocally opposed direct provision in opposition) need to reflect on the untold damage that direct provision is having on its residents.”

Legal challenge to Direct Provision in the High Court (Dr Liam Thornton, Human Rights In Ireland) 

Meanwhile…

“Our failures are essentially human rights failures and we should be particularly alive to the fact that, never more so than at a time of recession and austerity, are bodies such as a Human Rights Commission and an Equality Authority needed to make sure that in a decade’s time we won’t be weeping our way through another pitiful cataloguing of State-inflicted abuse, albeit with a modern twist.”

Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal last night.

Previously: Enemy Of The State 

‘Improperly Discriminatory’

Shutting Out The Asylum Seekers

On Our Doorstep

It Goes Way Back

Let’s Give Them Home

An Asylum Seeker Writes

Pic: Screengrab from Discouragement

 UPDATE:

Not exactly.

RTÉ court reporter Vivienne Traynor spoke with Seán O’Rourke on the News At One about the case.

Vivienne Traynor: “In these proceedings the man is looking for a number of orders: restraining her from having an abortion or from leaving the jurisdiction.
He also seeks an injunction restraining her parents from bringing her out of the jurisdiction until it can be ascertained that she wants to go. The man is asking the court to vindicate the rights of the unborn child. And he also wants the court to order an urgent investigation to see if the young woman is being brought to the UK against her will, before the court would permit her to leave the country for an abortion.
He says he has no desire to restrain her from travelling, should that be her freely-held will. Now the court was told that the couple have known each other for a year but the family have not accepted their relationship. He says his girlfriend’s family are deeply unhappy with the fact that she’s in a relationship with someone of non-European origin.
But he said that he believes his girlfriend wants to have the baby, that she’d registered with the maternity hospital and was looking forward to having a scan in the near future. And that she’d also gone to buy baby clothes for the child. Now, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy granted the man permission to serve notice of the proceedings against his girlfriend.
She’s also directed that the Attorney General be made a notice party to these proceedings so the case may return to court today. It’s not certain that it will return today but there’s a possibility that it will come back before the court.”

Sean O’Rourke: “But clearly, in the view of the person taking this case, there’s an element of urgency to this?”

Traynor: “Yes, absolutely. He wants the court to direct that an urgent investigation be carried out, as to whether or not this is her decision, that she would travel or be travelling. Also, he wants an order that the parents cannot take her out of the jurisdiction.”

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

PWCThis may be interesting.

“The administrators of Quinn Insurance have been given the go ahead to serve a summons on PricewaterhouseCoopers, the former auditors to the collapsed insurance group.”

“The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, gave his consent after a short hearing this afternoon where he was updated on the administrators’ preparations for the huge commercial action.”

“The collapse of Quinn Insurance is expected to lead to drawings on the Insurance Compensation Fund of in the region of €1.6 billion and has prompted the Government to establish a 2 per cent levy on all home, motor and commercial insurance policies.”
 

Quinn Insurance to sue PwC for damages (Colm Keena, Irish Times)

Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

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Bankrupt former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick has told the High Court he intended any profits from his Stg£250,000 investment in a London property, funded via a loan from Anglo, would give “a lift” and “a chance of money” to a “bright young kid” who joined the bank from school.

Mark Redmond could have made thousands “or nothing, which is what it turned out to be”, Mr FitzPpatrick said.

Mr FitzPatrick added he paid, from his own money as “gifts”, school and college fees for some children of Anglo officials.

Mmf.

The man’s a saint.

FitzPatrick says he paid education fees of Anglo officials’ children as “gifts” (Mary Carolan, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said last week it was “truly shocking” that €1.65 billion may be required from the compensation fund to meet claims and costs arising from the administration of the insurer. He sought the “clearest of explanations” to be provided to understand the reasons for these costs at the hearing today. During last week’s hearing he said it would be helpful if somebody from the Central Bank also attended the court.

The cost of the administration was put at about €738 million and this rose to €775 million. The amount being sought from the fund “had more than doubled” in the space of a few months, he said.

Lawyers for the administrators told the court that the €1.65 billion was “an absolute ceiling” and based on a worst-case situation, while the actual level of draw-down was expected to be between €1.1 billion and €1.3 billion.

Oh, well that’s all right then.

Official at bank to explain Quinn cost (Simon Carswell, Irish Times)

(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)