Dillon v Dunne's Stores Ltd and Others

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

(S.C.)

Dillon

and

Dunne's Stores Limited and Others

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, s. 27, (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 SÃochána. 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 into 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...