O'Donnell v Hegarty

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1942
• Date: 01 January 1942

O'Donnell v. Hegarty

GENEVIEVE O'DONNELL

Applicant

and

PATRICK HEGARTY, Defendant (1)

High Court.

Estoppel - Res judicata - Autrefois acquit - Criminal trial - Acquittal - Affiliation

proceedings.

Defendant was charged in the Circuit Court under s. 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1935, with having had unlawful carnal knowledge of the applicant, a girl over the age of 15 years and under the age of 17 years, and was acquitted. Only one act of intercourse was alleged by the prosecution. Subsequently the applicant brought affiliation proceedings against the defendant. In reply to a notice for particulars, the applicant's solicitor stated that the applicant intended to rely on the same act as was alleged in the criminal trial and on no other. When the application came before the District Court, defendant's solicitor raised the point that the subject-matter of the proceedings was res judicata and the defendant was entitled to rely on the plea of autrefois acquit. He submitted, alternatively, that in the special circumstances of the case, the acquittal on the criminal charge acted as an estoppel in favour of the defendant in any subsequent proceedings. Having heard the arguments for the applicant and defendant and the evidence produced, the District Justice stated a case for the opinion of the High Court.

Held that the subject-matter of the affiliation proceedings was not res judicata, that the pleas of autrefois acquit and estoppel could not be raised and that the acquittal of the defendant on the criminal trial was no bar to the affiliation proceedings.

Case Stated by the District Justice for the District Court Area of Killybegs, County of Donegal.

The facts appear from the Case Stated which was as follows:—

"On the 20th December, 1940, an application under the Illegitimate Children (Affiliation Orders) Act, 1930 (No. 17 of 1930), came before me at Killybegs District Court.

When the case was called and before it was opened for the applicant, Mr. Francis Gallagher, solicitor for the defendant, stated that he intended to plead on his client's behalf that the subject-matter of the proceedings was res judicata in view of the reply given by Mr. Cunningham, solicitor for the applicant, to a notice for particulars served upon him, the said reply showing that the act, and only act, relied upon to ground the application before me was the same act constituting the offence charged in an indictment under s. 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1935 (No. 6 of 1935), against the defendant, and in respect of which he was tried and acquitted at the Circuit Court held in Donegal on the 8th October, 1940.

Mr. Gallagher then called the Circuit Court Registrar, Mr. P. J. Ward, to give evidence with regard to the trial of the said defendant at the Circuit Court at Donegal on

the 8th October, 1940, on the charge that he, the defendant, on the night of the 15th or the morning of the 16th August, 1939, in the County of Donegal, had unlawful carnal knowlege of the applicant in these proceedings, a girl who was then over the age of 15 years and under the age of 17 years.

Mr. Ward produced the original depositions, the original indictment, the Criminal Order Book, and gave the names of the witnesses called for the prosecution and defence and produced the issue paper showing the findings of the jury, and gave evidence that the defendant had been acquitted and that the verdict was not obtained on any technical grounds but on the merits, so to speak, after all the witnesses for the prosecution and defence had been heard, and uncontroverted evidence that the applicant was over the age of 15 years and under the age of 17 years on the occasion of the offence charged in the indictment.

A certificate of acquittal, signed by Mr. Ward, was also produced in evidence.

[The District Justice then set out the arguments...