Volkl v The Governor and Guardians of The Hospital for The Relief of Poor Lying-in-Women in Dublin, Commonly Called The Rotunda Hospital

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: K. B. Div.
• Judgment Date: 05 November 1914
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)
• Date: 05 November 1914

Volkl

and

The Governor and Guardians of the Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in-Women in Dublin, Commonly Called the Rotunda Hospital (1).

K. B. Div.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE KING'S BENCH DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL,

AND BY

THE COURT FOR CROWN CASES RESERVED.

1914.

Alien — Right of alien enemy to maintain action — Aliens Restriction Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 12) — Aliens Restriction (Consolidation) Order, 1914.

An alien enemy duly registered under the provisions of the Aliens' Restriction Act, 1914, and Order made thereunder, and residing in a prohibited area of the United Kingdom under a permit, may sue in the Courts in this country, notwithstanding the existence of a state of war between this country and the country of the alien.

Princess Thurn and Taxis v. Moffitt, 31 T. L. R. 24, followed.

Motion to stay the action on the ground that the plaintiff was an alien enemy. The action was brought to recover damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff when she was a patient in the defendants' hospital, through the negligence of the defendants, their servants, and agents. The plaintiff was the wife of one Anthony Volkl, a subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire, who had been living in the United Kingdom for the past nine years, and was, until shortly after the declaration of war between His Majesty's Government and Austria-Hungary, employed as a waiter in a hotel in Dublin. Anthony Volkl had since left that employment, but was at the time of the present application registered under the Aliens Restriction Act, 1914, in the office of the Commissioner of Police in Dublin, as an Austrian subject. The plaintiff was herself born at Havant, Hampshire, on or about the 8th January, 1887, both her parents being English, and had lived continually in England until her marriage, which took place on or about the 12th March, 1912. From that date until the month of June, 1914, she had lived in Ireland with her husband. In June, 1914, she had returned to the home of her parents in Havant, Hampshire, and

had since that time been residing there. On the outbreak of the war, and the publication of the proclamation restricting the rights of aliens, she had become duly registered as an alien, and had from time to time reported herself as required by law. The plaintiff had got a permit authorizing her to reside at Havant, which was a prohibited area.

Powell, K.C. (with him A. V. Matheson), for the defendants:—

The plaintiff is an alien enemy, and as such is debarred from suing during the continuance of the war. The fact that she is residing in the United Kingdom is not sufficient to enable her to sue. She must have some express permission from the Crown—tacit permission to reside is not enough. The enactments of the Napoleonic era dealt separately with registration of aliens, and licences to alien enemies to trade; it was the latter only which gave the...