Woods and Others v Dublin Corporation

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

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 lunatic asylum in such half-year, and the committee for the asylum shall be a joint committee of the councils of the counties, with a representation of each council . . . in proportion to the number of lunatics from each county . . ."By sub-sect. 2 of s. 9 it is provided that, out of a committee appointed by a county council under the section, a number not exceeding one-fourth may be persons not members of the council. By s. 12 of the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 9 of 1923), the Minister for Local Government was empowered to order a local inquiry into the performance of its duties by any local authority, and, if satisfied that the duties of the local authority were not being duly and effectually discharged by such local authority, to dissolve such local authority, and to transfer the property and the several powers and duties of such local authority to any body or persons or person he should think fit. In exercise of these powers, the Minister, by order, dated May 20th, 1924, duly dissolved the Council of the County Borough of Dublin, which was one of the councils which appointed representatives on the Joint Committee; and he transferred its...