The Court of Appeal dismissed Declan and Bernadette Fagan’s appeal against a High Court order, ruling that it had no jurisdiction to entertain it. The court did not hear the substantive issue.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 5 November 2018, Mr Justice McGovern said the High Court judge, Mr Justice Meenan, had exercised appellate jurisdiction when reversing a Master of the High Court’s decision to extend the time for an appeal. Under section 39 of the Courts of Justice Act 1936, the High Court decision was final and could not itself be appealed, he said.
Ms Fagan had asked the Court of Appeal to decide the jurisdiction question before considering anything else. The court agreed to address that question first, although counsel for ACC Loan Management Limited had indicated they were willing to proceed with both jurisdiction and the merits.
The court also refused Ms Fagan’s request to adjourn the hearing until a decision was made on her civil legal aid application. Mr Justice McGovern said no satisfactory explanation had been given for waiting until August 2018 to apply. He noted that the appeal had been listed for directions on 15 June, when no legal aid application was mentioned and no objection was made to fixing a hearing date.
The judgment cited Supreme Court decisions concerning civil legal aid and adjournments. It concluded that the legal aid application was not a good ground to postpone the hearing. After ruling that the High Court order was unappealable, the Court of Appeal said it was unnecessary to examine the underlying dispute.