King & Goff v Minister for Justice

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1973
• Neutral Citation: 1965 WJSC-HC 4595
• Docket Number: 246/1973 S. S.
• Date: 01 January 1973
• Court: High Court

1965 WJSC-HC 4595

THE HIGH COURT

DOYLE J.

246/1973 S. S.

King & Goff v. Minister for Justice

STATE SIDE

THE STATE AT THE PROSECUTION OF EAMONN P. KING AND JOHN P. C.GOFF

.v.

THE MINISTER FOR JUSTICE

IN THE MATTER OF THE COURTS (SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS) ACTS 1961TO 1968

AND IN THE MATTER OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICE ACTS 1924TO 1961

AND IN THE MATTER OF THE COURTHOUSES (PROVISION ANDMAINTENANCE) ACT 1935

1 This is an application to make absolute a conditional Order of Mandamus granted on the 23rd day of July 1973 by Mr. Justice Finlay, now President of the High Court, whereby he commanded the Minister for Justice to exercise the statutory duties imposed on him by sub-section 1 of section 6 of the Courthouses (Provisions and Maintenance) Act 1935, namely to direct (after consultation with the Minister for Finance) the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland to execute such repairs and to do such other work as may be necessary or proper to put the Court accommodation at Waterford into proper repair and condition unless cause shown to the contrary.

2 The facts giving rise to the application are as follows. The Waterford Courthouse is an edifice in the great traditionof Irish public buildings of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is set in a public park and is a notable architectural adornment of the City of Waterford. Until comparatively recent times it afforded reasonable accommodation for the transaction of the business of the Courts but the cumulative effects of age and neglect or inadequate repair progressed to the stage where the building became structurally unsound and dangerous, so that in October 1970 Mr. Justice Murnaghan, the going Judge of the High Court on Circuit, declined to sit in the Waterford Courthouse and the next sittings were transferred to Dungarvan in the western part of the county. At subsequent High Court Circuits Mr. Justice Pringle and Mr. Justice Gannon refused to sit at Waterford for similar reasons and sat instead at Dungarvan, Kilkenny or Clonmel. The Circuit Court Judge of the South Eastern Circuit, His Honour Judge Fawsitt, had earlier expressed his concern and dissatisfaction with the state of the courthouse and had communicated both with the Waterford Corporation, the body charged by statute with the maintenance and provision of courthouse accommodation in the city and also with the Department of Justice complaining of the condition of the courthouse generally and in particular the condition of the courtroom itself. The then President of the Circuit Court on the 16th of November 1972 made anorderexcluding Waterford City from the list of sittings of the South Eastern Circuit. District Justice Coughlan, then District Justice for the Waterford Court area, in the summer of 1971 had transferred the District Court sittings from Waterford City to Tramore. This dislocation and interruption of the work of the courts became a matter of public concern in Waterford, not least amongst the solicitors of the City and County, almost all of whom were members of an unincorporated body known as the Waterford Law Society to which I will hereinafter refer as the Society. The Society, as early as 1967, had taken up the matter of the provision of proper courthouse accommodation with the Waterford Corporation and a protracted correspondence ensued. Eventually the Society requested the Minister for Justice to exercise his statutory powers to remedy the situation. These powers are to be found in the Courthouses (Provision and Maintenance) Act 1935to which I have referred earlier. Section 3 of that Act casts upon Councils the duty of providing courthouse accommodation for the purposes and in the manner therein prescribed.

3 The Society's urgings bore some fruit. The Minister for Justice by letter of the 20th of January 1972 reminded the Corporation of their obligations under Section 3 of the Act aforesaid and expressed his serious concern at the fact that adequate accommodation had not yet been provided to enablecourt sittings to be resumed in the City of Waterford. After further deliberations the Corporation decided to acquire and adapt as a temporary courthouse a building in O'Connell Street known as the "Quakers' Hall". The necessary works were put in hand and the District Court resumed its Waterford sittings in this building early in October of 1973. The President of the Circuit Court by order dated the 15th of June 1974 restored to the list of Circuit Court sittings the City of Waterford and the learned Circuit Court Judge resumed those sittings in July of the same year.

4 I have had evidence on affidavit from Messrs. Peter O'Connor, John P.C. Goff, Fergus Power, Desmond R. Counahan, Isn Farrell, Patrick F. Burke, Francis W. Hutchinson, Maurice W. Keller and E.P. King and have also heard oral testimony from Mr. Goff who is the current president of the Waterford Law Society and Mr. Fergus Power who is one of the senior members of that body. All of these gentlemen, as I intimated before embarking on this hearing, are known to me as eminent solicitors in the County and City of Waterford and as highly responsible practitioners. Their evidence and that of Mr. Christopher Falconer, an architect engaged by them, has satisfied me that the courthouse accommodation at the Quakers' Hall is quite inadequate and unsuitable for the transaction of the legal business of a City of the size and importance ofWaterford. The courtroom is small and ill-ventilated. The accommodation for litigants, witnesses, jurors and...