Limerick Corporation v Sheridan

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1956
• Date: 01 January 1956
• Court: High Court

Limerick Corporation

and

Sheridan

Order prohibiting erection or retention of temporary dwelling -Whether such order ultra vires the powers of the enabling statute - Case stated - Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1948 (No. 3 of 1948), s. 31, sub-ss. (1) and (2).

Section 31, sub-ss. (1) and (2) of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1948, provides as follows: —"(1) A sanitary authority may by order prohibit the erection or retention of temporary dwellings on any land or water in their sanitary district if they are of opinion that such erection or retention would be prejudicial to public health or the amenities of the locality or would interfere to an unreasonable extent with traffic on any road. (2) A prohibition under this section may relate either to specified land or water or all land or water of a specified class and, in particular, may relate to all land or water within a specified distance of the centre line of any road or a specified road." The complainants were the sanitary authorities for the County Borough of Limerick. By an order dated 11th October, 1951, they, by virtue of the powers conferred on them by section 31 of the said Act, prohibited the erection or retention, without their previous written consent, of any temporary dwelling on any street or roadway within the area of the County Borough of Limerick, being of opinion that any such erection or retention would interfere to an unreasonable extent with traffic on such street or roadway, or on any land in said County Borough situate within the distance of three hundred yards from the centre of any such street or roadway or from any occupied dwellinghouse therein, being of opinion that any such erection or retention thereof would be prejudicial to the amenities of the locality. The defendant resided in a wheeled caravan which she maintained on waste ground at the rere of 49 Parnell Street in...