Monahan v McNamara

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1925
• Docket Number: (1924. No. 8302.)
• Date: 01 January 1925

Supreme Court.

(1924. No. 8302.)

Monahan v. M'Namara

MICHAEL MONAHAN

Plaintiff

and

MARTIN M'NAMARA,Defendant (1)

Practice - Transfer of action - Action commenced in High Court - Transfer to Circuit Court - Action of tort - Personal injuries - Damages exceeding £300 - Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924), sect. 25 and 48.

Appeal against an order of Murnaghan J., dated the 14th November, 1924, transferring the action for trial before the Circuit Judge of the County of Limerick.

By the writ, which was issued on the 15th October, 1924, the plaintiff claimed £500 damages for assault.

The defendant, a farmer, in his affidavit grounding the application to transfer the action, swore that he had a good and valid defence to the action; that on a charge for the same assault he was found "not guilty" and acquitted by a jury of the County of Clare on the 1st October, 1924, at the Ennis sittings of the South-Western Circuit, and that the plaintiff had no visible means of paying his (defendant's) costs should a verdict not be found for the plaintiff.

The plaintiff, a farmer's son, in his affidavit resisting the application, swore as follows: "The assault herein was committed on the 31st October, 1922. On that date I was having my dinner about 12 o'clock with my mother in my house when the defendant's sister Nora called me at the door. I went out in answer to her call, when the defendant rushed from behind the house, and, without any notice, struck me a violent blow on the head with a four-pronged manure fork. I was felled to the ground. I was taken to hospital later, and remained unconscious in hospital until the 11th of November, when I partially recovered. I recovered consciousness completely on the 20th of November, but I had a partial paralysis of the right side of the body, and also paralysis of the left eye. Dr. Holmes stated in his evidence before the Circuit Judge that the unconsciousness and paralysis were due to hæmorrhage of the brain which I suffered, resulting from the blow inflicted. I was in hospital for two months. After leaving hospital I had to give up all kinds of work that necessitated any kind of bending or physical effort. I had to consult Dr. Charles M'Donnell, eye specialist, of Limerick, about my eye, and up to the present time my right side has to be painted once a week with iodine. I constantly suffer from a very heavy, dull pain at the back of my left ear,

and I suffer from loss of memory; and, in fact, I am more or...