The Supreme Court has quashed Edward Brennan’s convictions after finding that he was sentenced to four months in prison in proceedings of which he had no notice.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2003, the court allowed Brennan’s appeal against a High Court refusal of judicial review. It quashed the convictions but said it was unnecessary to make an order concerning the reissued committal warrant.
Brennan said he had not personally received summonses for the hearing and did not know about it. The respondents did not dispute that he lacked actual notice. They argued that the summonses had been served by hand in an envelope addressed to him at 3 Claddagh Green, Ballyfermot, and that the District Court’s conviction should be presumed valid. They also argued that he should have used an alternative procedure to set the proceedings aside.
The Supreme Court held that the statutory presumption of good service depended on proof of specified matters. The respondents had not shown that the required proof was before the District Court. The court said the respondents’ evidence did not establish that the statutory conditions had been met, while Brennan’s lack of notice was proved without contradiction. It concluded that the conviction proceedings denied him due process, fair procedures and natural and constitutional justice.
The court also rejected the argument that Brennan should be denied judicial review because another remedy was available. He had spent about three weeks in prison and had been refused an extension of time to appeal by the District Court judge. The Supreme Court said it would not exercise its discretion in a way that would require him to return to prison while pursuing the alternative route.
Brennan had separately challenged the reissue of a committal warrant. The certificate said to record why the original warrant had not been executed could not be produced, and the court noted there was no secondary proof that the required conditions for reissue had been met. It nevertheless made no order on the warrant, having quashed the convictions.