County Meath Vocational Education Committee v Joyce

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judge: Mr. Justice Feargus M. Flood
• Judgment Date: 22 March 1994
• Neutral Citation: 1994 WJSC-HC 1414
• Docket Number: Record No. 28 M.C.A./93
• Date: 22 March 1994

1994 WJSC-HC 1414

THE HIGH COURT

Record No. 28 M.C.A./93

MEATH VEC v. JOYCE

IN THE MATTER OF SECTION 27 OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT (PLANNING

AND DEVELOPMENT) ACT 1976 AS SUBSTITUTED BYSECTION 19 (4)

(G) OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT (PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT) ACT

1992 AND INTHE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION BY COUNTY MEATH

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

BETWEEN

COUNTY MEATH VOCATIONAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

APPLICANT

DAVID JOYCE, MICHAEL JOYCE, PATRICK STOKES, JOHNNY STOKES,JOHN LAURENCE, GERARD WARD, EDWARD STOKES, PATRICK REILLY, BERNARDPOWER, DAVID POWER

RESPONDENTS

AND

MEATH COUNTY COUNCIL

THIRD PARTY

Citations:

LOCAL GOVT (PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT) ACT 1976 S27

LOCAL GOVT (PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT) ACT 1992 S19(4)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S8(b)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S8(e)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S9(1)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S9(1)(a)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S9(1)(b)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S9(2)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S9(2)(b)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S10(b)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S10(c)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S11(1)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S11(1)(a)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S11(1)(b)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S13(1)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S13(2)

HOUSING ACT 1988 S13

HOUSING ACT 1966

MCNAMEE V BUNCRANA UDC 1983 IR 213

HOUSING ACT 1966 S55(3)

HOUSING ACT 1966 S60

HOUSING ACT 1988 S2

HOUSING ACT 1966 S53

HOUSING ACT 1966 S56(2)

HOUSING ACT 1966 PART III

MCDONALD V FEELY UNREP O'HIGGINS 23.7.80 1980/15/2682

HOUSING ACT 1966 S111

HOUSING ACT 1988 S8

HOUSING ACT 1988 S9

HOUSING ACT 1988 S10

HOUSING ACT 1988 S11

HOUSING ACT 1966 S54

HOUSING ACT 1966 S55

HOUSING ACT 1966 S56

HOUSING ACT 1966 S57

HOUSING ACT 1966 S58

HOUSING ACT 1966 S59

HOUSING ACT 1966 S61

HOUSING ACT 1966 S62

Synopsis:

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Housing

Housing authority - Duties - Travellers - Caravans - Sites - Provision - Failure - Power of authority to provide sites - Power conferred in discretionary terms - Authority directed to make new assessment of needs of homeless travellers - Third-party procedure - Remedy - Scope - Housing Act, 1966, s. 56 - Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1976, s. 27 - Housing Act, 1988, ss. 2, 9, 11, 13 - Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1992, s. 19 - (1993/28 MCA - Flood J. - 22/3/94) - [1997] 3 IR 402 - [1994] 2 ILRM 210

|County Meath Vocational Education Committee v. Joyce|

PRACTICE

Parties

Third party - Procedure - Remedy - Scope - Action - Cause - Trespass of defendant traveller - Third-party procedure invoked by defendant - Defendant's claim against housing authority - Alleged breach of statutory duty by housing authority - Whether issue raised by defendant properly raised in third-party proceedings - (1993/28 MCA - Flood J. - 22/3/94)- [1997] 3 IR 402 - [1994] 2 ILRM 210

|County Meath Vocational Education Committee v. Joyce|

TRAVELLERS

Trespass

Local authority - Power - Exercise - Obligation - Caravan site - Provision - Absence - Enactment stated that housing authority may provide such sites - Housing authority directed to assess again needs of homeless persons including travellers - (1993/28 MCA - Flood J. - 22/3/94) [1997] 3 IR 402 - [1994] 2 ILRM 210

|County Meath Vocational Education Committee v. Joyce|

1 Judgment of Mr. Justice Feargus M. Flooddeliveredthe 22nd day of March 1994.

Background

2 This matter comes before the Court by way of an application by the Applicants, who are the managers and owners of a community school at Limekiln Hill, Trim Road, Navan, Co. Meath, against the Respondents, a group of itinerant families, for an Order under Section 27 of the Local Government Planning and Development Act 1976 as amended, restraining an unauthorised use of the road side at or near the community school at Limekiln Hill, Trim Road, Navan by the Respondents and other "travelling families" as a camp site.

3 In brief a number of families of the "travelling community" have, in varying numbers from 15 to 27, been encamped for a period in excess of 2 years on this unauthorised camp site.

4 They have trespassed on the school grounds and caused serious disruption of classes in the school by reason of the playing of radios and tape-recorders at full blast, by reason of quarreling and shouting and general obstreperous behaviour. Some of the travelling community who frequent the site and have intimidated teachers, pupils, and parents passing along the road leading to the school gates. Rubbish of all kinds, including human excrement, had been thrown all around the school grounds and the camp site itself is a public health hazard and the overall result is a quite intolerable nuisance.

5 The named Respondents filed Affidavits to the effect that none of them had individually been responsible for the matters of which complaint has been made. Whilst I am prepared to accept their sworn statements at their face value, it is beyond the bounds of probability that the matters complained of have any other source than the occupants of this unauthorised camp site. When the application was served upon the Respondents, they in turn applied to this Court for leave to issue third party proceedings against the Meath County Council.

Third Party Relief Claimed

6 The said third party proceedings claimed indemnification against the Applicant's claim and the costs of this action, or alternatively a contribution to suchextent as the Court may direct on the grounds that the said action has arisen out of the breach of duty, including breach of statutory duty of you, your servants or agents in that, you have failed either adequately or at all to comply with the requirements under Section 8(b), (e), 9(1) (a) (b), (2) (b), 10(b) (c), 11(1) (a), (b), Section 13(1) (2) of The Housing Act, 1988

7 Underlying the foregoing relief is a claim in principle by the Respondents that the third party, the County Council, owed them a duty to provide serviced camp sites pursuant to the provisions of Section 13 of the Housing Act 1988.

8 Complaint has been voiced by Counsel for the County Council, that third party procedure is an inappropriate procedure in this case. This complaint was responded to by Counsel for the Applicants.

9 I do not propose to determine this procedural point. The third party procedure is, as far as this case is concerned, an adequate vehicle to bring the issues clearly before the Court for determination on both legal, factual and practical grounds. Rules of procedure should always be regarded as the servants and not the masters of justice.

Primary Relief

10 In relation to the issue between the Applicants and the Respondents under Section 27 of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 1978 (as amended) I have already granted to the Applicants relief by making an Order on the 25th day of February 1994 in terms of paragraphs (A) (B) and (C) of the Notice of Motion herein.

11 I have granted a stay on this Order until the 22nd day of April 1994 and given the Applicants liberty (on giving written notice to the Respondent's Solicitor of not less than 24 hours) to apply to this Court to lift the stay, if there is any recurrence of the type of nuisance referred to above and in particular recited in the Affidavit of Burgha McDevitt or of nuisance of a similar character.

12 Lest any doubt exist in anyone's mind, I unequivocally condemn the conduct of the kind recited in the said Affidavit in the most vehement terms. No claim by any party that rights have been infringed, or that there has been a breach of statutory duty in their regard, can ever warrant conduct of this kind. Cohersion by any group, by savage, violent and threatening means cannot enhance the merit of any claim and cannot under any circumstances be tolerated from any group in society.

13 The essential issue to be determined in the third party proceedings is whether the Meath County Council owe a statutory duty to the travelling community, on this unauthorised site, to provide them with a "serviced camp site" in or near the town of Navan and, the parameters of that duty and the time scale within which it should be performed.

Statute Law

14 The statutory source of any duty, such as claimed, is the 1966 Housing Act as amended by the Housing Act 1988.

15 In McNamee v. Buncrana U.D.C. 1983 I.R. 213 at 217 Chief Justice O'Higgins says

"The Housing Act, 1966, was a major legislative measure aimed at tackling, in a planned manner, thepersistent problem of bad and inadequate housing-not only in the large centres of population but throughout the country. It envisaged the launching of a new and sustained housing drive, financed by loans and grants-in-aid to local bodies and handled by these bodies, as housing authorities, under the supervision of the Minister concerned. An examination of part III discloses the policy or thinking behind the Act. In the first place, the magnitude of the problem was to be assessed by an inspection by each housing authority of all the houses in its functional area. This was to be done in accordance with a time scale specified by the Minister and was aimed at ascertaining in each area the existing extent of poor housing and overcrowding. In the second place, housing authorities were required to review the cost of their existing or proposed building programmes so that the Minister could be fully informed as to existing or contemplated expenditure. It was further required that all housing authorities should draw up long-term building programmes, having regard to the ascertained needs in relation to housing in their functional areas. These needs were to be considered in relation to the replacement of unsuitable houses, the elimination of overcrowding, and the number of persons unable to provide for themselves; and housing authorities were to have regard to various other social objectives set out in s. 55, sub-s. 3 of the Act.

It was the clear intention that the collection of allthe necessary information and the drawing up of a building programme would proceed in each area as the Minister would direct, and that approved building programmes would be financed over a...