Linnane v Nestor and Others

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1943
• Date: 01 January 1943
• Court: High Court

Linnane

and

Nestor and Others

Claim to prescriptive title over portion of foreshore - Evidence of user -Taking of seaweed - Sufficiency of evidence -Licence under Foreshore Act, 1933 - Effect of licence - Constitution of Irish Free State (Saorstat ireann) Act, 1922, Sch. 1, Art. 11 - Effect of Art. 11 of Constitution on inchoate private interest in foreshore

For sixty years and upwards, the defendant S. McN. and his predecessors in title had removed seaweed from the foreshore adjoining their lands. A licence under s. 3 of the Foreshore Act, 1933 (No. 12 of 1933) was granted in January, 1942, to the plaintiff, authorising him to remove seaweed from this portion of foreshore; in March, 1942, the defendant, S. McN., applied for and obtained a similar licence. The only access by land to the foreshore in question was over a passage way on S. McN.'s land. S. McN., aided by the other defendants, prevented the plaintiff from having access to the foreshore. The plaintiff brought proceedings in the Circuit Court and obtained a decree for damages and an injunction against the defendants. The defendants appealed. Held by the High Court (Maguire P.) that the decree of the Circuit...