O'Brien v Keogh

JurisdictionIreland
Judgment Date28 July 1972
Date28 July 1972
Docket Number[1968. No. 215 P.]
CourtSupreme Court
O'Brien
and
Keogh
(S.C.)

Disability -Infant - Infant in custody of parent having lesser period in which to sue than infant not in such custody - Equality before the law - Personal rights - Right of action - Property rights -Statute of Limitations, 1957 (No. 6), s. 49, sub-s.2(a)(ii) - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Article40, ss. 1 and 3.

In regard to actions for damages for negligence where the damages claimed include damages for personal injuries, it is enacted by s. 11, sub-s. 2(b), of the Statute of Limitations, 1957, that (subject to s. 49) an action shall not be brought after three years from the date on which the right of action accrued. Sub-paragraph (i) of sub-s. 2(a) of s. 49 enacts that where a person is under a disability (including infancy) on the date when such right of action accrued to him then, subject to sub-paragraph (ii), the action may be brought at any time before the expiration of three years from the date when he ceased to be under the disability or died, whichever first occurs. Sub-paragraph (ii) of the same sub-section states that s. 49 of the Act of 1957 shall not apply unless the plaintiff proves that the person under the disability was not in the custody of a parent when the right of action accrued. On the 8th September, 1963, the infant plaintiff suffered personal injuries as the result of a collision on that date between the motor car of his father (the second defendant), in which the plaintiff was a passenger, and a motor car belonging to the first defendant. On that date the plaintiff was in the custody of his parents. On the 25th January, 1968, the plaintiff instituted an action in the High Court against the defendants claiming damages for his personal injuries on the ground that each defendant had driven his car negligently on the occasion of the collision. The defendants pleaded that the plaintiff's cause of action was statute-barred and the plaintiff raised the issue of the validity of s. 49, sub-s. 2 (a)(ii), of the Act of 1957 having regard to the provisions of the Constitution. An issue was set down for hearing as a preliminary point of law and, having heard submissions on...

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83 cases
  • Tuohy v Courtney
    • Ireland
    • Supreme Court
    • 26 July 1994
    ...HEGARTY V O'LOUGHRAN 1990 1 IR 148 MORGAN V PARK DEVELOPMENTS LTD 1983 ILRM 156 O'DOMHNAILL V MERRICK 1984 IR 151 O'BRIEN V KEOGH 1972 IR 144 O'BRIEN V MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING CO LTD 1973 IR 334 MOYNIHAN V GREENSMITH 1977 IR 55 FOLEY V IRISH LAND COMMISSION 1952 IR 118, 1957 86 ILTR......
  • Campbell v Ward
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 28 April 1981
    ...... . 5By virtue of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of O'Brien .v. Keogh ( 1972 I.R. 44) section 49(2) (a) (ii) of the Statute of Limitations 1957 was held to be unconstitutional. . 6In the case of Moynihan .v. ......
  • Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Min for Communication and Others
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 5 May 2010
    ...of the report: "It is quite clear from [East Donegal Co-Operative Livestock Mart Ltd v. Attorney General [1970] IR 317, O'Brien v. Keogh [1972] IR 144, Cahill v. Sutton [1980] IR 269] and other decisions that even in cases where it is sought to invalidate a legislative provision the Cour......
  • O.R v an tArd Chláraitheoir
    • Ireland
    • Supreme Court
    • 7 November 2014
    ...a phrase, borrowed from the jurisprudence of the US Constitution and first used in this jurisdiction by O'Dalaigh C.J. in O'Brien v. Keogh [1972] I.R. 144 at p. 156. 66 Recourse was therefore had to Article 41 of the Constitution so as to find such justification: in particular Article 41.1......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
3 books & journal articles
  • Indexes
    • United Kingdom
    • International Journal of Evidence & Proof, The No. 18-4, October 2014
    • 1 October 2014
    .... . . . . . . 15Nicholas vThe Queen (1998)CLR 173 . . . . . . . 247Nolan vMcLeod 1987 SCCR558 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16O’Brien vKeogh [1972] IR144 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94O’Leary vAttorney-General [1993] 1IR 102. . . 53,342Ohio vRoberts, 448 US56 (1980) . . . . . . . . . . . 257P......
  • The Prosecution of Organised Crime: Removing the Jury
    • United Kingdom
    • International Journal of Evidence & Proof, The No. 18-2, April 2014
    • 1 April 2014
    ...57; Glanville Williams,The Proof of Guilt: A Study of the English Criminal Trial (Stevens & Sons: London, 1955). 80 O’Brien v Keogh [1972] IR 144.81 Dillane v Ireland [1980] ILRM 167. 94 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE & PROOF THE PROSECUTION OF ORGANISED CRIME The matter of equality ......
  • Ireland's divorce bill: traditional Irish and international norms of equality and bodily integrity at issue in a domestic abuse context.
    • United States
    • Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law Vol. 31 No. 3, May 1998
    • 1 May 1998
    ...was to "redress the inequalities imposed by circumstances on orphans and illegitimate children." Id. at 642. (35.) O'Brien v. Keogh [1972] I.R. 144, 154 (Ir. S.C. 1972), available in LEXIS, Intlaw Library, IRECAS (36.) Id. at 154-56. Again, as in the Nicolaou case, the O'Brien court found t......

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