A Supreme Court judge has concluded that prison authorities did not owe P McD a duty of care arising from the way the complaints procedure operated in the prison where he was held.
In a judgment delivered on 17 September 2021, Ms Justice Dunne agreed with the approach taken by Mr Justice MacMenamin on the negligence issue. She held that, on the facts of the case, no duty of care arose towards P McD from the manner in which the prison complaints process operated.
The judge nevertheless described it as unfortunate that, for whatever reason, the complaints procedure had not functioned as intended.
The short judgment forms part of a wider Supreme Court appeal whose underlying facts were set out in separate judgments. Ms Justice Dunne said the background had led to difficult issues in earlier High Court proceedings referred to as the “capacity proceedings”, but she did not repeat those facts in her own judgment.
Her point of departure from Mr Justice MacMenamin concerned whether the court should grant a declaration. A declaration is a formal statement by a court determining a legal position even where no damages or other substantive remedy follows.
Ms Justice Dunne said she could not see a basis for granting such a declaration in this case. On that issue, she agreed with the reasoning of Mr Justice O’Donnell and Mr Justice Charleton.
She therefore concluded that the appeal should be dismissed and that no declaration should be made.
The judgment itself does not reproduce the specific complaints made by P McD, the detailed operation of the prison complaints system, the findings in the earlier High Court proceedings or the precise declaration sought. Those matters were addressed in the companion Supreme Court judgments rather than this two-page opinion.