Case Reports

A district judge who raised concerns about budget cuts qualifies as a worker for the purposes of legislation protecting whistleblowers, justices in the Supreme Court have ruled. Lady Hale with whom Lord Kerr, Lord Carnwath, Lady Arden and Sir Declan Morgan agreed, delivered the judgment.

The High Court has refused an application made by Cork County Council in which it sought an order to direct a property arbitrator to state a case regarding his jurisdiction. The property arbitrator was nominated to hear a dispute over compensation for land acquired by a compulsory purchase order; ho

Clare County Council has been granted a permanent injunction restraining a couple and their family from trespassing on a housing estate where they had previously held a tenancy. The family had lived on the site for over 14 years before being victims of an arson attack, and the Council had promised t

The Minister for Health has lost his application to have proceedings challenging proposed new pharmacy rules split into two separate hearings. Refusing the application, Mr Justice Anthony Barr said splitting the trial was likely to raise the overall costs of the action and that it important not to d

Coolmore Stud has been granted an order striking out a defamation claim brought by a former employee who wrote a book about the famous thoroughbred farm after he retired in 2015. Coolmore Stud wrote letters to retailers and distributors of the book after it was published, threatening legal action if

A line manager at a bank has been awarded €7,500 in compensation for the organisation’s failure to properly address a formal grievance she raised about being undermined in her ability to manage a new employee. Stating that the 15-month delay in dealing with the formal grievance had exacer

A consultant psychiatrist has been awarded €4,000 after it was found that he was penalised for making a protected disclosure about the clinical performance of a colleague. Ordering the employer to pay compensation for penalising the complainant, Adjudication Officer Kevin Baneham found tha

A man who brought a case to the Workplace Relations Commission seeking redress for discrimination on the grounds of gender has had his complaint dismissed. The man complained that he was not allowed to use a room designated for use by females only and that he was being discriminated against since th

An EU citizen minor has “sufficient resources” not to become an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system of the host member state even if their resources are derived from income obtained from unlawful employment, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled. In

A woman who had to travel to England for a termination after being told that her unborn child had a fatal foetal abnormality has been successful in her challenge to Northern Ireland's abortion law. Following the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that the relevant legislation is incompatible with Artic

A man who was terminated without notice after working with a machinery manufacturing company for nearly a year has been awarded €15,000 in the Workplace Relations Commission. Finding that the company was in breach of the Employment Equality Acts, Adjudication Officer Ray Flaherty

A farm manager who was employed by a food company for over ten years before he was summarily dismissed has had his complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 dismissed. The complainant alleged that his dismissal was based on his refusal to sign fraudulent claim forms for EU payments, and that th

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal brought by the three applicants whose conjoined applications for judicial review were dismissed in the High Court earlier this month. Stating that it was not the Court’s task to evaluate the merits of a UK withdrawal from the EU with

A university lecturer has had her request for the re-run of an allegedly unfair and biased promotions scheme refused by the Workplace Relations Commission. However, stating that she was “struck by the lack of a formalised detailed processes that would be expected around a promotions scheme suc

A lecturer who was subject to sexual harassment by students in her class has been awarded €10,000 in the Labour Court. Finding that Waterford Institute of Technology “did not take such steps as were reasonably practicable to prevent sexual harassment and harassment based on gender”