Galvin v Graham-Twomey

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: O'Flaherty J.
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1994
• Neutral Citation: 1995 WJSC-HC 773
• Court: High Court
• Date: 01 January 1994

1995 WJSC-HC 773

THE HIGH COURT

Before O'Flaherty J.

GALVIN v. GRAHAM-TWOMEY

CIRCUIT APPEAL

BETWEEN

EILEEN GALVIN

Plaintiff/Appellant

AND

MARY GRAHAM-TWOMEY

Defendant/Respondent

Citations:

RSC O.31 r29

MEGALEASING UK LTD V BARRETT 1993 ILRM 497

COLLINS V JONES 1955 1 QB 564

GATLEY ON LIBEL & SLANDER 8ED PARA 1073

HARRIS V WARRE 1879 4 CPD 125

Synopsis:

DEFAMATION

Libel

Pleadings - Particularity - Necessity - Plaintiff - Words used unknown - Procedure - Discovery of documents inapplicable - (Appeal from the Circuit Court - O'Flaherty J. - 15/11/93) - [1994] 2 ILRM 315.

|Galvin v. Graham-Twomey|

PRACTICE

Pleadings

Libel - Particularity - Necessity - Plaintiff - Words used un known - Procedure - Discovery of documents inapplicable - (Appeal from the Circuit Court - O'Flaherty J. - 15/11/93) - [1994] 2 ILRM 315.

|Galvin v. Graham-Twomey|

PRACTICE

Documents

Discovery - Procedure - Propriety - Libel - Pleadings - Particularity - Necessity - Procedure inapplicable for purpose of establishing particulars - (Appeal from the Circuit Court - O'Flaherty J. - 15/11/93) - [1994] 2 ILRM 315.

|Galvin v. Graham-Twomey|

1 O'Flaherty J. delivered on the 15th day of November, 1993.

2 In October, 1992 the plaintiff served a civil bill on the defendant claiming damages for libel and slander (as well as claims for damages for misrepresentation, negligence and wrongful interference with the plaintiff's constitutional right to her good name) in the Cork Circuit Court. The plaintiff is a teacher and, also, Vice-Principal of the New Inn National School, Glanmire, County Cork. The defendant is also a teacher at that school.

3 It is clear that certainly since about September, 1991 relations between the two teachers which, it would appear, had been strained for some time reached a particularly low ebb. The plaintiff says that this coincided with her appointment to the position of Vice-Principal for which position the defendant appears also to have offered herself as a candidate. The plaintiff has alleged in the course of her pleadings in the civil bill that she was slandered by the defendant on a number of occasions and she has given particulars of these incidents in the civil bill. Nothing arises on this aspect of the case.

4 With regard to the plaintiff's claim that she was libelled by the defendant the situation is more complex because the plaintiff has never seen any of the written materials on which she would seek to base her claim for libel. So that she is not in a position to plead as regards what may be in these documents. That difficulty is at the heart of these appeals.

5 It appears that there have been many applications to the Circuit Court in Cork, of an interlocutory nature, and I will refer later only to the relevant orders which have been made insofar as this judgment may bear upon them.

6 In the course of an affidavit filed by the plaintiff in one of those proceedings she gives a full history of her complaints against the defendant. It is right to say that the defendant has also filed affidavits, from time to time, controverting many of the plaintiff's complaints. I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not entering into the merits of this case in the slightest. I have a legal issue to resolve which I will do.

7 However, as regards this matter of libel, the plaintiff deposed in the course of one of her affidavits as follows:-

8 On the 16th day of October, 1991, the chairman of the Board of Management, Fr. Thomas Deenehan, called to my classroom and informed me he had received "a very strong" letter from the defendant in relation to objections to my appointment. He appeared rather disturbed and upset by the contents thereof. He declined to show the letter to me as he said it was marked "private and confidential". He confirmed that he had also shown the letter to the parish priest, Fr. Sean Burke. He informed me that he had found the contents of the letter difficult to believe. I was extremely upset by this, and it was clear from his demeanour and the expressions used that the letter had made serious allegations against me, both in my personal and professional capacity. I believe the reason the said Fr. Deenehan did not show me the letter was that he knew that I would be shocked by the contents. On or around the 17th October, 1991, the said Fr. Deenehan again called to the school and said he had received another letter from the defendant objecting to my appointment.

9 Later in the affidavit she deposes that she believes that letters from the defendant concerning her had been sent to the Board of Management as well as to Mr. Peter McCann, who is a school's inspector as well as to the Department of Education and, it would appear, certain Dáil deputies.

10 The matter is pleaded as follows. Paragraph 4 of the civil bill states:

11 In or around the month of September 1991, the position of Vice-Principal was advertised on the school notice board. There is in existence an agreement between the I.N.T.O. and Catholic Primary Manager's Association of 1972 that states that in general the position of Vice-Principal is to be filled by the senior teacher in the school. At this time I was the senior teacher in the school. I duly applied for the post, as did the defendant. On October the 7th, 1991 notice of my appointment was posted in the school, which allowed ten days for an appeal to be lodged against my appointment. It was at this time that the present difficulties came to a head.

12 At paragraph 9 it is pleaded:

13 On diverse dates since the plaintiff's appointment as Vice-Principal of the said school, the defendant has falsely and maliciously written and...