The High Court awarded Gerard Burke €10,000 after assessing damage arising from South Dublin County Council’s unlawful withholding and subsequent disposal and destruction of four of his horses in or about July 2011. The judgment dealt with the assessment of damages, not a new hearing on liability.
Mr Justice Hedigan said the court could consider only loss arising from the horses. Burke’s claim for loss of his livery business was excluded: he had said clients would not leave horses with him because they considered the area unsafe, and the judge found the council was not responsible for that situation.
The judge rejected Burke’s valuations as greatly exaggerated and said his evidence about the horses’ purchase prices and claimed values was unsupported and not credible. He accepted evidence from expert witness Noel Corcoran, who valued the four horses as of July 2011. The court assessed “High Mist” at €1,500, “Kyle Orville” at €1,000, “Bailey” at €500 and an unnamed “Sports Horse” at €1,000, for a total of €4,000. The judge said those figures included any breeding value.
The court also accepted that Burke suffered shock from having his horses put down, particularly given the manner in which it happened, and awarded €6,000 in general damages.
In an earlier judgment in the substantive case, the judge had strongly criticised how the council disposed of the horses. In this damages assessment, he said the council had been acting under a duty to remove horses from the public highway and did not consider its actions then or later to have been in bad faith. He refused exemplary or punitive damages and ordered a decree for €10,000.