The Court of Appeal has struck out Deirdre Morgan’s appeal against the High Court’s refusal to let her pursue an application to disclose information under the Employment Equality Act 1998. The court ruled that the appeal was an abuse of process and had been brought in breach of an order requiring her to obtain High Court leave before bringing further proceedings covered by that order.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 5 July 2024, Ms Justice Costello exercised the Court of Appeal’s statutory power to determine certain applications alone. She considered the application to strike out the appeal, set it aside as irregular, or strike it out under the court’s inherent jurisdiction. A request to extend the existing order was not pursued because, the judge said, it would require a three-judge panel.
The appeal arose after the High Court refused Ms Morgan leave to seek relief under section 97(2)(b) of the 1998 Act. The High Court had concluded that the relevant proceedings were finished and could not be reopened there, and that the contemplated application was vague and had no reasonable prospect of success. Ms Morgan’s appeal argued that courts had failed to give effect to a prior Equality Tribunal finding. She said the finding had been reopened by later decisions.
Costello J said the appeal did not address the High Court’s reasons for refusing leave. She also noted that the evidence Ms Morgan sought to introduce was the same evidence whose admission she had refused in February 2023 in connection with other appeals. Those appeals had been heard and judgment was awaited. The judge said the evidence issue belonged in that appellate process and that reopening it risked conflicting proceedings.
The judgment records that a High Court order made on 28 June 2022 required Ms Morgan to obtain a High Court judge’s leave before instituting further proceedings concerning matters related to her employment with Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board, including her suspension, contract termination, pension and gratuity entitlements. Costello J concluded that leave was required even to bring the present appeal, and that Ms Morgan had neither sought nor obtained it.
The judge dismissed the appeal, then ordered it struck out as frivolous and vexatious, an abuse of process, and separately as having been brought in breach of the Isaac Wunder order. The decision concerned the appeal and the leave and evidence issues before the court; it did not determine the underlying employment dispute.