O'Sullivan v Leitrim County Council

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 25 July 1953
• Date: 25 July 1953
• Docket Number: (1950. No. 981.)
• Court: High Court

(H.C.),

O'Sullivan

and

Leitrim County Council

Computation of amount of pension - "Yearly salary and emoluments"- Whether maintenance or subsistence allowance part of "yearly salary and emoluments"- Whether statutory appeal to Minister for Local Government exclusive remedy - Local Government Act, 1925 (No. 5 of 1925), ss. 42, 44 - Agriculture Act, 1931 (No. 8 of 1931), s. 19, sub-s. 1 - Local Government (Superannuation) Act, 1948 (No. 4 of 1948), s. 93 - Committee of Agriculture (Officers' Travelling Expenses and Maintenance Allowance and Expenses) Regulations, 1936 (Stat. R. Or., 1936, No. 97).

Prior to his retirement from office, on the 1st October, 1948, the plaintiff was employed by the defendants as an agricultural instructor and also as secretary to the Leitrim Committee of Agriculture and was in receipt of sums of £730 per annum in respect of the former employment and £160 per annum in respect of the latter employment. Included in the sum of £730 was a sum of £50 paid to the plaintiff as a maintenance allowance towards subsistence expenses under the Committees of Agriculture (Officers' Travelling Expenses and Maintenance Allowance and Expenses) Regulations, 1936. On his retirement the plaintiff became entitled to receive an annual allowance not greater than two-thirds of his yearly salary and emoluments, under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1925, s. 44, sub-s. 1. On the plaintiff claiming that the said annual allowance should be calculated on the basis that his yearly salary and emoluments amounted to the sum of £890, the defendants, with the consent of the Minister for Local Government, awarded him an annual allowance of two-thirds of the average salary and emoluments received by him during the three years before the date of his retirement; the said sum of £50 per annum was not taken into consideration for the purpose of calculating the plaintiff's yearly salary and emoluments. In an action by the plaintiff claiming (inter alia) a declaration that...