The High Court has dismissed proceedings begun in 1987 by John Rooney over compensation for cattle identified as reactors to bovine tuberculosis testing. It also ordered Mr Rooney to pay the costs of the motion seeking dismissal.
Mr Justice Eagar delivered the judgment on 5 May 2017. The application was brought by the remaining defendants numbered one to five and seventeen. Rooney, who represented himself, did not take part in the hearing of the motion.
The court said the Supreme Court had already dealt with the substantive issues. In 1991, the Supreme Court dismissed Rooney’s appeal concerning a special case on whether the Minister could establish a non-statutory scheme. The High Court’s 2017 judgment said the substantive claim for compensation and related damages depended on a successful outcome on that issue.
Two procedural matters remained formally unresolved in the 1987 case: Rooney’s motion for judgment in default of defence, and his later application to amend his statement of claim. In January 2016, the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal concerning the default motion and also dismissed his appeal against the refusal to allow the amendment. It said the proposed amendment sought to introduce a new legal claim about the alleged invalidity of the scheme.
The 2017 court said there were no outstanding issues left to decide and that the proceedings should be dismissed. It noted that the dismissal did not exhaust Rooney’s domestic remedies. The costs order described in the judgment applies to the defendants’ dismissal motion.