The High Court has struck out proceedings brought by Carmel Rose O’Reilly McCabe alleging negligence, fraud and the “wrongful birth” of five children arising from her belief that her husband had secretly been made a ward of court.
Mrs McCabe claimed that Thomas McCabe had been taken into wardship following a 1965 road traffic accident and that this legal status had been concealed from her before their marriage in September 1972. She alleged that the supposed wardship affected her marital and property rights and sought damages including €1.4 million for the alleged loss of rights over the family home at Lisduff, Kells, County Meath.
The Minister for Justice and Patrick Cusack Smith and Company sought to have the case dismissed. They argued that the claim disclosed no reasonable cause of action, repeated issues already litigated and was frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of process.
Mr Justice Murphy accepted evidence from officials responsible for wardship records that Thomas McCabe had never been made a ward of the High Court, either as a minor or an adult. The judge said the issue was a matter of public record and the contrary assertion was unsupported by evidence.
The court also found no evidential basis for Mrs McCabe’s allegations that relevant documents had been suppressed, or for claims of fraud and forgery concerning property transactions.
Murphy J noted that substantially the same underlying allegations had appeared in earlier Irish and Northern Irish proceedings. A 1992 High Court action had already been held to disclose no reasonable cause of action, while a similar Northern Ireland case was dismissed in 1996.
Mrs McCabe’s own motion seeking to strike out the defendants’ defences for alleged failures in discovery was refused. The court also declined to send papers to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The judge concluded that the defendants should not be required to continue defending litigation founded on a wardship which did not exist and granted their applications to strike out the proceedings.