A haulage businessman was awarded €7,500 by the High Court after the Irish Road Haulage Association wrongfully expelled him in 2006. The court found the association breached the membership contract by failing to follow fair procedures, and made a declaration in the terms sought by the member.
The dispute followed a letter the member sent to Clare County Council on 21 June 2006. Written on Dublin Branch letterhead, it complained that roadworks in the Ennis area were dangerous and said the branch would hold the council’s engineer responsible for any damage or injury. The engineer asked the association whether the member had been representing it.
At a Council meeting in Portlaoise on 28 June, the association’s then president read the letter aloud. A motion to expel the member was proposed, seconded and passed twice. The judgment records that the member was allowed to speak, although he was slow in delivering his remarks and did not get out what he wanted to say.
The member sued in 2007, claiming his removal breached fair procedures and his membership contract. The association admitted the claim in its defence and later apologised. In June 2008 it acknowledged the expulsion was wrongful, confirmed the member had remained a full member, and said it would publish the apology in its trade magazine. The court heard he had been able to attend meetings and receive notices since then, subject to membership requirements.
The hearing in February 2009 was limited to assessing damages. Justice Laffoy held that the claim was one for breach of contract, based on the membership rules’ implied requirement for fair procedures. She said the association had admitted that requirement was breached. She did not treat the action as a separate claim for breach of constitutional rights.
There was no evidence of damage to the member’s reputation or financial loss. The judge accepted that he was deeply hurt and embarrassed, including because he felt distanced from fellow haulage professionals and unable to attend truck festivals and rallies. She considered that distress a reasonably foreseeable result of wrongful expulsion from an association of business peers.
The court awarded €7,500 for distress during the two years before the apology and public recognition of his continuing membership. The judgment also ordered a declaration in the terms sought in the statement of claim.