Manning v Judge Aeneas McCarthy No.1

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys
• Judgment Date: 21 November 2016
• Neutral Citation: [2016] IEHC 800
• Date: 21 November 2016
• Court: High Court
• Docket Number: [2016 No. 865 JR] [2016 No. 866 JR]

[2016] IEHC 800

THE HIGH COURT

JUDICIAL REVIEW

Humphreys J.

[2016 No. 865 JR]

[2016 No. 866 JR]

BETWEEN

STEPHEN MANNING

APPLICANT

AND

JUDGE AENEAS MCCARTHY

RESPONDENT

(No. 1)

BETWEEN

STEPHEN MANNING

APPLICANT

AND

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

RESPONDENT

Practice & Procedure – Duplication of case – Judicial Review – Prohibition of trial midway – Exceptional circumstances – Effective remedy

Facts: The applicant instituted two judicial review proceedings and sought leave from the Court for an order of prohibition of the criminal proceedings in midway of the trial. The Court had earlier granted an interim stay on the criminal proceedings. The key issue arose as to whether an order of prohibition should be granted midway through a trial.

Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys refused to grant leave to the applicant and had vacated the stay granted on the criminal proceedings. The Court, in conformity with the Supreme Court decision in Mellett v O'Reilly [2002] IESC 33, held that it was not appropriate to seek the prohibition of trial before its conclusion. The Court observed that it was within the rights of the applicant to come back to the Court and seek judicial review by way of an order of certiorari if he was dissatisfied with the decision arrived at the criminal proceedings. The Court also held that to solve the issue of duplication, as the applicant had instituted two judicial review proceedings, the proceedings against the first respondent in the first named proceedings had to be struck out and the application against the DPP was to be considered.

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT of Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys delivered on the 21st day of November, 2016

1 The salient issue here is that the trial being judicially reviewed is currently underway with the prosecution case having opened and run for a number of days but not in fact concluded, pending an interim stay I granted last Monday, 14th November, 2016. I have to say very candidly that I didn't fully appreciate that the trial was underway last Monday when I granted an interim stay but I place no blame on the applicant for any misunderstanding on my part as to the situation.

2 The question then to be decided is, can an order of prohibition be granted midway through a trial? The authority in this case is the Supreme Court decision in Mellett v. O'Reilly [2002] IESC 33 (Unreported, Supreme Court, (Hardiman J., Murphy and Geoghegan JJ....