Garrahan v Garrahan

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1959
• Date: 01 January 1959
• Court: High Court

Garrahan v. Garrahan.

JOHN GARRAHAN

Plaintiff

and

HUGH GARRAHAN

Defendant.

Practice - Equitable execution - Receiver - Pension of retired Gárda officer - Inalienable by voluntary act of pensioner - Whether receiver can be appointed over such pension - Gárda Síochána Pensions Order, 1925 (S.R. & O. No. 63 of 1925), Article 12 (1).

A judgment obtained in the High Court by the plaintiff against the defendant remained unsatisfied, and the defendant was in receipt of no income from any office or property within the jurisdiction other than a pension payable under s. 8 of the Gárda Síochána Act, 1924, in respect of past services as a Gárda officer. The Gárda Síochána Pensions Order, 1925, which regulates the conditions under which such pensions are to be payable, provides by Article 12 (1) that such pensions shall be inalienable by the voluntary act of the pensioner otherwise than for the benefit of the pensioner's family.

Held that the restriction imposed by the Order on the assignment of such pensions did not extend to the involuntary alienation thereof, and accordingly did not preclude the appointment of a receiver by way of equitable execution over such a pension.

Higgins v Higgins, [1951] Ir. Jur. Rep. 29 followed.

Lucas v. Harris, 18 Q. B. D. 127, distinguished.

Motion on Notice.

The plaintiff, John Garrahan, a member of the Gárda Síochána and a brother of the defendant, was severely injured when a passenger in a motor-car, the property of the defendant, which was involved in a collision at the Downs, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, on the 14th March, 1955. The plaintiff consequently instituted proceedings in the High Court by plenary summons for damages for negligence against the defendant. No appearance having been entered to the summons, a motion for judgment was brought by the plaintiff before Mr. Justice McLoughlin on the 20th July, 1956, such damages to be assessed by a judge without a jury. The assessment came on for hearing before the President of the High Court on the 30th October, 1956, but the defendant was neither present nor represented at the hearing. Damages were assessed at £3,000, and the plaintiff's total costs of the action were taxed at £297 5s. 0d.

The judgment for damages and costs having remained totally unsatisfied, the plaintiff's solicitor caused a writ offieri facias to be issued directed to the Sheriff of the County of Dublin, to which a return of "no goods" was made. The defendant was a retired officer of the Gárda Síochána, who was in receipt of no income from any office or property within the jurisdiction other than a pension of approximately £230 per annum, payable monthly, in respect of his services as such Gárda officer. He resided with his wife in Walkinstown, Dublin, where she carried on a general grocery business in premises owned by her.

The plaintiff's solicitor had written to the Secretary of the Department of Justice inquiring whether he knew of any reason why the defendant's pension should not be attached, and had received a letter in reply stating that the Minister for Justice knew of no reason why the pension should not be attached.

The plaintiff accordingly applied to the Court, by motion on notice, for an order appointing Elizabeth Wright, solicitor, receiver by way of...