The Supreme Court struck out Mary Stokes’s purported appeal over the admission policy of Christian Brothers High School Clonmel, holding that the Equal Status Act barred a further appeal after the High Court had dismissed her appeal on a point of law.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Hardiman on 24 February 2015, concerned a complaint Mrs Stokes made in July 2010 on behalf of her minor son. The complaint challenged the school’s admissions policy, including a “parental rule” that gave priority to applicants who were children of former pupils.
The Director of the Equality Tribunal upheld the complaint in November 2010. The school appealed to the Circuit Court, which set the Director’s decision aside. Mrs Stokes then appealed to the High Court on a point of law. That appeal was dismissed on 3 February 2012, with the school again successful.
Mrs Stokes sought to appeal that outcome to the Supreme Court. The school argued that no such appeal lay under section 28(3) of the Equal Status Act 2000, which provides that “No further appeal lies, other than an appeal to the High Court on a point of law”.
Mr Justice Hardiman said Mrs Stokes had already used the statutory appeal to the High Court and lost. He read the provision as allowing one appeal from the Circuit Court, on a point of law, and excluding any appeal beyond it. The exception for a High Court appeal had been exhausted, he said.
The judgment addressed the statutory limit on appeals, not the merits of the school’s admissions policy or the original discrimination complaint. Mr Justice Hardiman noted that one of his colleagues considered the wording insufficient to exclude an appeal to the Supreme Court. He nevertheless concluded that it clearly barred a further appeal and ordered that the purported appeal be struck out.