Morgan v Minister for Education and Skills

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice Cian Ferriter
• Judgment Date: 01 June 2022
• Neutral Citation: [2022] IEHC 363
• Court: High Court
• Docket Number: [2021/103JR.]

Between

Deirdre Morgan

Applicant

and

Minister for Education and Skills

Respondent

and

Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board

Notice Party

[2022] IEHC 363

[2021/103JR.]

THE HIGH COURT

JUDICIAL REVIEW

Judicial review – Leave to apply – Pension entitlements – Applicant seeking leave to apply by way of judicial review for an order of certiorari – Whether the proceedings were brought for an improper purpose

Facts: The applicant, Ms Morgan, applied to the High Court for leave to apply by way of judicial review for an order of certiorari “quashing the determination of [the respondent, the Minister for Education and Skills] made under section 70 of statutory instrument number 292 of 2015 Education and Training Board Teachers Superannuation Scheme received by me on 18 November 2020”. The issues sought to be raised in the proceedings arose from the applicant’s removal from her position as an art teacher with the notice party, Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB). The question of the applicant’s entitlement to a pension had been the subject of final and binding determinations by the Labour Court and the High Court. The applicant had been in receipt of an ill-health retirement pension under a superannuation scheme for teachers employed by Education and Training Boards (the Scheme). She was refused an injury gratuity on the basis that she had not met the requirements for same, in particular, that she had not been injured in the course of her work.

Held by the High Court (Ferriter J) that the proceedings while ostensibly seeking to challenge a particular (non-binding) decision in an internal review process in relation to the applicant’s pension entitlements, were in fact an improper attempt to seek to re-open the circumstances of the applicant’s removal from her teaching position in June 2015. Ferriter J held that this was clear from the terms of an amended statement of grounds delivered by the applicant following a case management hearing before the High Court in respect of this and a series of other High Court proceedings brought by the applicant against the Minister and the Board. Ferriter J was satisfied that these proceedings were in that rare category of proceedings brought for an improper purpose; they represented yet another step in the applicant’s long-running campaign of legally vexatious complaints and proceedings against the Minister and KWETB stemming from her refusal to accept that she was lawfully removed from her teaching position in June 2015. Ferriter J held that the question of the applicant’s lack of entitlement to an injury gratuity had already been finally and conclusively determined against the applicant in proceedings brought against the Minister which were the subject of decisions against the applicant by an adjudication officer of the WRC, the Labour Court and by the High Court. Ferriter J was satisfied that no arguable grounds had been raised in relation to the lawfulness of the Minister’s decision of 16 November 2020. Ferriter J held that it was clear that the Board was perfectly entitled as a matter of law to determine that the applicant did not meet the criteria for the award of an injury gratuity under the Scheme and the Minister was entitled to uphold that view. Ferriter J held that the applicant had not raised any bona fide arguable grounds as to any legal error committed by the Minister in her review of the Board’s decision; this was quite apart from the fact that the determination was a non-binding one.

Ferriter J refused the applicant leave to apply for judicial review in the proceedings.

Leave refused.

JUDGMENT of Mr. Justice Cian Ferriter delivered on the 1 ^st day of June 2022

1 This is an application for leave to apply by way of judicial review for an order of certiorari “quashing the determination of the Minister for Education and Skills made under section 70 of statutory instrument number 292 of 2015 Education and Training Board Teachers Superannuation Scheme received by me on 18 November 2020”. S.I. 292 of 2015 relates to a superannuation scheme for teachers employed by Education and Training Boards (the “Scheme”). Article 70 of the S.I. provides for a form of appeal to the Minister from a determination in relation to a complaint...