The High Court has set aside orders renewing two defamation summonses brought by Barbara Naughton against Irish Examiner Limited and Independent Star Limited, publisher of the Irish Daily Star. Justice Siobhán Phelan ruled that the evidence did not establish special circumstances justifying renewal after the summonses went unserved for more than four years from the alleged publications.
The judgment, delivered on 1 December 2023, concerned the defendants’ applications to set aside renewal orders made by Justice Cross in June 2020. The summonses had issued in January 2017 but were not served within 12 months. Naughton had first applied to renew them in August 2019; Justice Allen refused those applications. She did not appeal. In June 2020, she applied again without telling Justice Cross that the earlier applications had been refused. He renewed both summonses for three months.
Justice Phelan found that the failure to disclose the earlier refusals made the second applications an abuse of process. She nevertheless declined to set aside the orders on that ground, taking account of Naughton’s status as a lay litigant and her distress, and proceeding to assess whether the renewal applications could be justified on their substance.
Naughton said she had been medically unwell and had experienced a breakdown in communication with her former solicitor. Justice Phelan found the medical evidence insufficient to show that Naughton could not have advanced the cases throughout the relevant period. She also noted the absence of clear evidence about the solicitor’s role and the circumstances in which the summonses were left unserved.
The court weighed that evidence against the delay and the policy of requiring defamation cases to proceed promptly. The defendants also relied on prejudice, including changes in ownership and editors at the Irish Daily Star publisher. Justice Phelan was not satisfied that special circumstances justified renewing either summons, and allowed both set-aside applications.
The ruling did not decide whether the newspaper articles were defamatory or determine the merits of Naughton’s claims. The judge said she would hear the parties about the form of the order and consequential matters, with a further listing to be arranged by the Registrar.