Nee v Galway County Council and Galway Board of Health

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 18 December 1926
• Date: 18 December 1926
• Docket Number: (1924. No. 8,072.)
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

S. C.,

Nee

and

Galway County Council and Galway Board of Health

Abolition of Boards of Guardians - Powers and duties transferred to Committee of County Council - Abolition of workhouse - Disemployed official - Removal from office - Superannuation - Amount fixed by resolution of Board of Guardians - Validity of resolution - Certificate of Guardians - Claim payable out of poor rate - Limited time for payment - Portion of claim barred - Application for incorrect amount of superannuation signed under protest - No estoppel - Not operative as an accord and satisfaction - Local Government (Ir.) Act, 1898 (61 62 Vict., c. 37), s. 51 (7) -Local Government (Ir.) Act, 1919 (9 10 Geo. V., c. 19), s. 8 - Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 9 of 1923), s. 11.

A Board of Guardians in Co. Galway resolved to adopt a "county scheme," which involved their own dissolution and the discontinuance of the services of the plaintiff, a porter in their employment, and, by resolution passed on October 26th, 1921, they fixed his superannuation "at the full two-thirds" of his salary and emoluments. This amounted to £80 7s. 6d. per annum, and this was in fact the maximum allowance that could have been made to him under s. 8 of the Local Government (Ir.) Act, 1919. On October 28th, 1921, a "certificate" signed by the Chairman and Clerk of the Board "certified"that the Board, having considered Circulars 52 and 53 of the Local Government Department, had, by resolution, of which a copy was attached thereto, "provisionally granted" to the plaintiff the superannuation allowance shown, and this was £80 7s. 6d. as before, but arrived at by adding 26 years to the 14 years actually served by the plaintiff, and taking forty-sixtieths of his salary and emoluments —following Circular 53. At the next meeting the Board passed a resolution that the recommendations as to superannuation "provisionally adopted at last meeting" be confirmed, and the plaintiff's superannuation was again set out at £80 7s. 6d. The Board of Guardians and the office held by the plaintiff were abolished as from December 31st, 1921, and on each subsequent quarter day until March 31st, 1924, the plaintiff received a payment of £6 9s. 2d. in respect of an annual pension of £25 16s. 8s., which had been, it was suggested, determined by the Local Government Department of Dáil Éireann, but no legal proof of such determination or its validity was given. He never received the pension of £80 7s. 6d. He...