Moore and Others v Attorney-General and Others (No. 3)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 11 April 1930
• Date: 11 April 1930
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

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

Moore and Others

and

Attorney-General and Others (No. 3)

Appeal - Competency - Claim to a several fishery - Attorney-General and others defendants - Appeal by the defendants other than the Attorney-General -No appeal by the Attorney-General - Assertion of public rights - Position of Attorney-General -Action for a declaration - Claim for an injunction - Injunction only granted in personam and against a party to the action - "Representative"defendants - Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) Act, 1922 (No. 1 of 1922), Sch. I, Arts, 11 and 54 - Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924 (No. 16 of 1924), s. 6 - Rules of the Supreme Court (Ir.), 1905, Or, III, r, 4; Or. XVI, r. 9; Or. XXV, r. 5.

The plaintiffs, who claimed to be entitled to a several fishery in the tidal portion of the River Erne, in the County of Donegal, from the falls of Asseroe to the high sea or bar of Ballyshannon, brought an action against the Attorney-General of the Irish Free State, as representing the public and the State, and against 42 other persons (hereinafter referred to as the "special defendants"), who, the plaintiffs alleged, had wrongfully entered upon the said fishery and fished therein, The plaintiffs claimed (1) a declaration that they were entitled to the said several fishery and to the bed and soil underlying the said waters; (2) a declaration that, at the date of the coming into operation of the Constitution of the Irish Free State, they, or their predecessors in title, were entitled, under a valid and subsisting grant, to a several fishery as aforesaid, and that the same constituted a valid private interest at the said date within the meaning of Art. 11 of the said Constitution; (3) a declaration that, prior to the coming into operation of the said Constitution, by virtue of a certain Landed Estates Court conveyance, the grantees therein named (being the predecessors in title of the plaintiffs) became and were indefeasibly entitled by statute to the said several fishery, and the bed and soil underlying the said waters, and that such title was preserved by the said Constitution, and was now vested in the plaintiffs; (4) an order that the plaintiffs be quieted in the possession of the said several fishery; (5) a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants and all other persons from trespassing upon the said several fishery, fishing therein, or taking fish thereout; and from obstructing the plaintiffs, their servants, licensees, or...