The High Court has dismissed a civil servant’s claim for damages against the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ireland and the Attorney General, finding that she had not established workplace bullying or actionable workplace stress arising from her work at Gort Garda Station.
In a judgment delivered on 21 March 2014, President of the High Court Kearns said the claim concerned events over four days in May 2005, when the plaintiff was asked to prepare monthly accounts while another employee was away. She said she was under pressure to finish the work and was harassed by Superintendent Mockler after raising a question about a cheque for his expenses. Mockler denied threatening or bullying her.
The court heard that the plaintiff had experienced workplace difficulties in 1996 and 1997, but the judgment said those events were not part of the damages claim. The plaintiff’s case was that they had left her vulnerable to stress when the 2005 events occurred. The court also heard medical evidence about her symptoms and prior treatment for depression, which had not been disclosed in her replies to particulars or to some of her medical experts.
Kearns found the plaintiff’s account of the cheque incident was not credible and preferred Mockler’s evidence. He found that Mockler was entitled to assign her the accounts work and that she was capable of doing it. The court said the events described were limited to a few days and did not amount to the repeated inappropriate conduct required for workplace bullying. It also found no bullying or harassment in the earlier 1996–97 events.
On workplace stress, the court found there had been no complaints for eight years between 1997 and 2005 and that the plaintiff had been asked to perform a task for which she was qualified. It concluded that she had not shown that foreseeable injury was caused or contributed to by the matters complained of. The judgment added that, even if that conclusion were wrong, the plaintiff had not established that her stress was attributable to those matters.
The court dismissed the claim on both the bullying and workplace stress grounds. The judgment does not specify a separate damages award or costs order.