Electricity Supply Board v Gormley

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 21 May 1985
• Docket Number: [1983 No. 327P]
• Date: 21 May 1985
• Court: Supreme Court

(H.C., S.C.)

Electricity Supply Board

and

Gormley

Public utility -Private property - Interference - Common good - Electricity supply cables - National grid -Statutory power of plaintiff board to erect pylons on defendant's land - No right to compensation - Statute unconstitutional - Local government - Planning - Permission - Application -Advertisement - Inadequate description of location - Permission invalid - Owner of registered land affected by exercise of statutory power - Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations, 1964 (S.I. No. 221), art. 9 -Electricity Supply Act, 1927 (No. 27), ss. 53(5), 98 - Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1941 (No. 1), s. 5 - Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1945 (No. 12), s. 46 - Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 (No. 28), ss. 25, 26 - Registration of Title Act, 1964 (No. 6), ss. 52(1), 69, 72 - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Arts. 40.3, 43.

Section 53, sub-s. 5, of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927, as amended by s. 46 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1945, provides that, if an owner or occupier of land fails to give her consent within 7 days after the service on her of a notice stating the intention of the Electricity Supply Board to place an electric line across her land, the Board may place such line across her land in the position and manner stated in the notice. Section 98 of the Act of 1927, as amended by s. 5 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1941, authorises the Board, on giving 7 days written notice of its intention, to lop or cut any tree, shrub, or hedge which obstructs or interferes with the erection or laying of any electric wires of the Board with the survey of the proposed routes of any transmission or distribution lines of the Board. The defendant was the owner of registered land which she had purchased without notice that the plaintiff had obtained planning permission for the erection of an electricity transmission line, a portion of which the plaintiff intended to run across her land, and without notice of the advertisement pursuant to which the application for planning permission had been made. This advertisement had described the location of the land to which the application related by naming the two townlands at which the transmission line was to commence and terminate in the county where the defendant's land was situate. Pursuant to s. 53, sub-s. 3, of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927, the plaintiff served a notice on the...