Dillon v Dunne's Stores Ltd and Others

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court
• Judgment Date: 08 July 1966
• Date: 08 July 1966

Dillon v. Dunne's Stores Ltd.

ELIZABETH DILLON, an Infant, Suing by her Father and Next Friend, Michael Dillon

Plaintiff

and

DUNNE'S STORES (GEORGE'S STREET) LIMITED, BEN DUNNE, MARGARET DUNNE, DENIS CULLOTY and JEREMIAH MOLLOY, Defendants (1)

Supreme Court.

Practice - Stay of proceedings - Plaintiff charged in criminal proceedings with larceny of goods - Plaintiff subsequently suing owner of goods for false imprisonment - Whether civil action should be stayed pending termination of criminal proceedings - Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland), 1877 (40 & 41 Vict., c. 57), s. 27, sub-s. 5.

The plaintiff had been employed by the defendant company as an assistant in a shop owned by that company. The second and third defendants were directors of the company and the fourth and fifth defendants were members of the Garda Síochána. The plaintiff was charged in the District Court with conspiracy to steal and with larceny of certain goods of the defendant company from the said shop and she was returned to the Circuit Court for trial on indictment. Shortly after the plaintiff was so charged she instituted a civil action in the High Court against the defendants in which she claimed damages and alleged that the defendants had conspired to imprison her falsely and had imprisoned her falsely during the course of an investigation by the defendants of the alleged larceny. The criminal trial commenced before a judge and jury in the Central Criminal Court, to which it had been transferred, but the jury were discharged without having reached a verdict and the criminal proceedings were adjourned. The plaintiff then served notice of trial of the civil action on the defendants and that action was listed for hearing in the High Court before the criminal proceedings were resumed. The fourth defendant, who was a witness for the prosecution in the criminal proceedings, applied to the High Court in the civil action for an order staying that action pending the termination of the criminal proceedings and the High Court ordered that the hearing of the civil action be adjourned accordingly. On appeal by the plaintiff from the order of the High Court it was

Held by the Supreme Court ( Ó Dálaigh C.J., Haugh and Walsh JJ.), allowing ó dálaighthe appeal, that the civil action should be restored, so far as possible, to its place in the High Court list as no considerations of public policy were involved and no grounds for staying that action had been established.

Appeal from the High Court.

The plaintiff, Elizabeth Dillon, was born on the 17th July, 1946. She had been employed by the defendant Company, Dunne's Stores (George's Street) Ltd., as an assistant in a shop owned by that Company and the second and third defendants were directors of the Company. The fourth and fifth defendants were members of the Garda Síochána. On the 10th April, 1964, the plaintiff was charged in the District Court with having conspired with others between the 1st May, 1960, and the 24th January, 1964, to steal and was also charged with larceny of certain property of the defendant Company between the 1st July, 1961, and the 31st January, 1964. The plaintiff pleaded not guilty to the said charges, although on the 24th January, 1964, she had signed a statement, witnessed by the fourth defendant,

which amounted to a purported confession of the larceny charges. The taking of depositions in the District Court commenced on the 27th April, 1964, and in the month of August, 1964, the plaintiff was returned to the Circuit Court for trial on indictment.

On the 23rd April, 1964, the plaintiff issued a plenary summons claiming damages from the defendants for, inter alia, false imprisonment of the plaintiff and conspiracy to falsely imprison her by the defendants. On the 9th October, 1964, the plaintiff delivered her statement of claim in which she alleged, inter alia, that she was innocent of the said charges, that the said statement had been obtained improperly, that she had been falsely imprisoned on the said 24th January, 1964, and that the fourth and fifth defendants were at all material times members of the Garda Síochána and were...