Malone v Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1931
• Date: 01 January 1931
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

[S. C., I.F.S.]

Malone

and

Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland)

Trial - Several actions for negligence brought against the same defendant - All the actions arising out of the same accident - Contributory negligence pleaded as a defence in some of the actions, not in others -Order of High Court directing that all the actions be tried together - Objection by plaintiffs to such order - Order set aside on appeal - Two test actions substituted, one in which contributory negligence was pleaded and the other in which it was not - Other actions stayed - Conditions imposed - Order of High Court not a consolidation order - Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ir.),1877 (40 41 Vict., c. 57), s. 27 (5) - Rules of the Supreme Court (Ir.), 1905, Or. XLIX, r. 9.

The Supreme Court held that a Court has no jurisdiction to order that a plaintiff in an action of tort shall be bound, without his assent, by the trial of an issue in another action by a different plaintiff, even though it be against the same defendant and arise out of the same transaction; but the Court can intervene to protect a defendant from oppression through a multiplicity of suits by staying all but one until the decision of a test case, the defendant undertaking to abide by the result of a finding against him in the test case as a consideration for the staying of the proceedings by the other plaintiffs. In the event of an adverse verdict in the tost case, the defendant can escape the expenses of further litigation by consenting to judgment in the other actions if the damages were liquidated or agreed, or by admitting liability and taking an issue on the amount of damages only. A train belonging to the defendants collided at a level crossing with a motor car. Nine actions were brought against the defendants, one by the driver of the car, seven by the seven passengers in the car, and one by the owner of the car...