Clare County Board of Health v Crowe; Same v Boyle

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judgment Date: 01 November 1940
• Date: 01 November 1940

Clare County Board of Health v. Crowe. Same v. Boyle.

THE CLARE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

Plaintiffs

and

JOHN CROWE

Defendant.

Same Plaintiffs

and

THOMAS BOYLE AND BETTY BOYLE

Defendants.

Practice - Circuit Court - Ejectment civil bill on the title - Application for summary judgment - Not sustainable where appearance entered - Rules of the Circuit Court, Or. XVI, r. 1 (iv) - Judgment obtainable in such ejectment under Or. XVI, r. 6, where there has been default of appearance or defence.

Plaintiffs, who had issued an ejectment civil bill on the title to which an appearance and a defence had been entered, were held not entitled to apply for summary judgment under Or. XVI, r. 1 (iv), of the Rules of the Circuit Court, but where the plaintiffs had issued another ejectment civil bill on the title to which no appearance had been entered it was held that under r. 6 of Or. XVI the rules as to summary judgment applied mutatis mutandis, and accordingly the plaintiffs might obtain judgment under Or. XVI.

Two Appeals from the Circuit Court which were heard together, the plaintiffs being the same in both cases, namely, the Clare County Board of Health and Public Assistance.

Crowe's Case.

In the first case the plaintiffs issued on the 31st March, 1939, an ejectment civil bill on the title against the defendant, John Crowe, a harness repairer and civil bill officer, claiming recovery of possession of "a labourer's cottage and plot of land, situate at Baunkyle, Corofin, in the County of Clare, the property of the plaintiffs and possession of which the defendant wrongfully withholds."

The defendant entered an appearance on the 6th April, 1939, and on the 12th April, 1939, the plaintiffs served notice that an application would be made on the 18th April, 1939, for an order entering summary judgment against the defendant in the terms of the said ejectment civil bill on the title and for an order for immediate possession of the cottage and plot, and that the application would be grounded upon the affidavit of John Quinn, their Secretary. In his affidavit, filed the 12th April, 1939, the said John Quinn stated that the plaintiffs were the owners in fee simple of the cottage and plot, and that the defendant, John Crowe, had entered into possession of the same without the authority, permission, or consent of the plaintiffs, and that he (the defendant) at present occupied the same and wrongfully withheld the possession thereof from the...