Fitzpatrick v Farmer Bros

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 21 December 1964
• Date: 21 December 1964
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

Fitzpatrick

and

Farmer Bros

Employer's petition in High Court for arrangement with creditors -Subsequent application by workman in Circuit Court for redemption of weekly payments - Circuit Court order for redemption - Whether Circuit Court had jurisdiction to make such order -Jurisdiction of Circuit Court challenged for first time on appeal - Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934, ss. 20, 36 - Workmen's Compensation (Amendment) Act, 1955, s. 8.

The applicant's former employers, who were partners, filed in the High Court a petition for arrangement with their creditors and subsequently the applicant issued a summons in the Circuit Court in which he claimed the redemption of certain weekly payments that he had been receiving from his employers as compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, 1934 to 1955. The summons was served on the Official Assignee who, at the hearing in the Circuit Court, agreed with the applicant's contention that his claim fell within the provisions of sub-s. 2 of s. 20 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934, and did not question the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court to bear and determine the summons. The Circuit Court judge, purporting to apply the provisions of the said s. 20, ordered the employers to pay the sum of £1,610 to the applicant and directed that sum to be recoverable as a preferential payment in the employers' arrangement matter. The Official Assignee appealed to the Supreme Court from the order of the Circuit Court and, in his notice of appeal, challenged for the first time the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court judge to make the said order. In allowing the appeal and discharging the order of the Circuit Court it was...