O'Reilly v Granville

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court
• Judgment Date: 15 July 1971
• Docket Number: [1968. No. 2983 P.]
• Date: 15 July 1971

(S.C.)

O'Reilly

and

Granville

Adding party as defendant - Cause of action against proposed defendant being statute barred - Whether application should be granted - Rules of the Superior Courts, 1962 (S.I. No. 72 of 1962), Or. 15, r. 13 - Statute of Limitations, 1957 (No. 6), s. 11, sub-s. 2 (b).

The plaintiff, while driving his motor car, suffered personal injuries in a collision between his car and another car. The plaintiff sued the defendant in the mistaken belief that he had been the owner and driver of the other car involved in the accident. After the issue of his plenary summons, the plaintiff was informed that Desmond Granville had been the driver of the other car at the time of the collision. The plaintiff applied to the High Court for leave to add Desmond Granville as a defendant in the action. The period allowed to the plaintiff by the Statute of Limitations, for bringing an action against the proposed defendant, had expired before the application was made. The concluding sentence of Order 15, r. 13, provides that "Every party whose name is so added as defendant shall be served with a summons or notice in manner hereinafter mentioned . . . and the proceeding as against such party shall be deemed to have begun only on the service of such summons or notice." The plaintiff's application was dismissed in the High Court on the ground that, as the statutory period had expired, it would be pointless to add the proposed defendant as a party to the action as he had stated that, if sued, he would plead the statute. On appeal by the plaintiff it was Held, by the Supreme Court ( Ó Dálaigh C.J., Walsh and Budd JJ.), in allowing the appeal, 1, that the proposed defendant...