Gleeson v Attorney General
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Judgment Date | 01 January 1975 |
| Neutral Citation | 1965 WJSC-HC 3696 |
| Date | 01 January 1975 |
| Docket Number | 00034598 |
| Court | High Court |
1965 WJSC-HC 3696
BETWEEN
and
In 1815 Mother Mary Aikenhead founded the Religious Sisters of Charity of Ireland ("the Congregation") which was approved by a Rescript of Pope Pius the VII. Its aims were the salvation of the souls of its members and works of spiritual and corporal mercy among the poor. The service of the poor was to be carried out by the care of the sick and drying in their homes and in hospitals and by the teaching of children.
When the Congregation was established, the members nursed the sick noon in Dublin by visiting them in their homes but living conditions for most of those who lived in Dublin at that time were so had that it was not possible to cure the many diseases sich were then so prevalent by home nursing. Mother Mary Aikenhead, therefore wished to establish a hospital where the sick poor could be treated and an opportunity to do this arose when Sister O'Farrell, a member of the Congregation, made a gift of £3,000 to her. She used this to purchase in 1834 the residence of the Earl of Meath which was at 56 Saint Stephen's Green and in 1835, the hospital, which subsequently became known as Saint Vincent's Hospital, was opened there. After the house had been purchased, an appeal (called a prospectus) was issued to the public seeking funds. The title of the document was "Prospectus of an Institution intended to be established in Stephen's Green Ditlin by the difficulties in treating sick persons who would not go to common hospitals and it continued: "The Sisters of Charity therefore, propose to found an Establishment, to which they could remove persons of better feeling, or habits, leaving to the common hospitals those who may be labouring under infectious complaints. With this view a large airy house has been purchased, in which the plans and comforts of the hospitals in Paris …… are intended to be introduced."
The members of the Congregation lived at 56 Stephen's Green which had been conveyed to three members of the Order. In 141 Sister M. Lucy Clifford, a member of the Congregation, made a gift of £1,000 to Mother Mary Aikenhead and with this, 57 Saint Stephen's Green was purchased for £1,000 and the property was conveyed to Mother Mary Aikenhead, Mother Helena McCarthy and Mother M. Lucy Clifford, who had provided the purchase money. When the work of reconstruction of 57 Stephen's Green was being carried out, part of the building collapsed and a public appeal for funds to erect a new building was made. In 1858 a new wing in which there was another ward, a children's section and accommodation for members of the community was built. In 1870, 55 Stephen's Green was bought and in 1838 nos. 58 and 59 Stephen's Green were purchased and used as part of the hospital. Subsequently 97 Lower Leeson Street was taken on lease and used as a nursing home for paying patients and, at a later date, 95 and 96 Lower Leeson Street were acquired and used for this purpose. In 1992 a training school for lay nurses was opened and in 1911 a nurses home was built.
In 1927 a limited company known as Dublin Private Hospitals Limited was formed to carry on the private nursing home and the properties in Leeson Street were conveyed to it. All the shareholders in the company were members of the Congregation. In addition, parts of 58, 59 and 60 Stephen's Green were used for the purposes of the private nursing home. Any dividends which were paid by the company out of its profits were applied in discharge of the expenses of the hospital in Stephen's Green or for the purposes of the Congregation.
All the buildings in Stephen's Green and Lesson Street were purchased with monies provided by the Congregation or its members. None of the purchase monies came from public subscriptions made for the purpose of buying the lands or buildings and the properties were always conveyed to members of the Congregation who took as trustees, though they were not so described in the deeds. Decisions on the control, staffing and management of the hospital have always been made by the Congregation and there has never been any element of public control of it. The Congregation have always regarded Saint Vincent's Hospital and the shares in the private nursing home as being owned by them in the same way that they own the money other institutions and schools in the State.
I have dealt with the history of the hospital in such detail because it is the decisive factor in this case in which the Attorney General has urged that Saint Vincent's Hospital became at some undefined date a separate charitable institution subject to a trust in favour of the sick poor and ceased to be the property of the Congregation.
From the time that the Hospitals Trust Fund was set up in 1933 substantial payments out of it have been made to Saint Vincent's Hospital to provide modern equipment and to pay the expenses of running the hospital. Between 1933 and 1969 more than £2 million were paid out of the Fund to Saint Vincent's Hospital. It is notorious that the costs of maintaining patients in hospitals have risen steeply since 1945 the payments at s received from the Hospitals Trust were insufficient to meet the costs of running the hospital and so, between 1932 and 1969, the Congregation contributed £600,000 at least out of its funds towards the running expenses of the hospital.
The accommodation at Saint Vincent's Hospital at Stephen's Green was insufficient to meet the demand for hospital beds and,...
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