Woods and Others v Dublin Corporation

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)
• Judgment Date: 20 December 1931
• Date: 20 December 1931

S. C., I. F. S.]

Woods

and

Dublin Corporation

Officers of Mental hospital - Remuneration -Power of Joint Committee of Management to alter remuneration - Invalidity of resolution - Constitution of Joint Committee -Order dissolving Council which appointed representatives on Joint Committee - Order appointing substituted representatives - Validity of appointment - Adequacy of representation - Validity of order - Local Government (Ir.) Act, 1898, ss.9, 84 - Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923, s. 12 - Local Government Act, 1925, ss. 72, 77.

The defendants, the Joint Committee of Management of a mental hospital, purported, by resolution, dated January 20th, 1926, to reduce the remuneration assigned to the plaintiffs, who were officers employed in the mental hospital The Joint Committee was constituted under s. 9 (7) of the Local Government (Ir.) Act, 1898, which, as amended by s. 77 of the Local Government Act, 1925 (No. 5 of 1925), provides: "Where a district for a lunatic asylum comprises two or more counties, this section shall apply, with the necessary modifications, to those counties and to the councils thereof; and the expenses of each half-year . . . shall be defrayed by the several counties in proportion to the number of lunatics from each county maintained in the...