The Supreme Court’s Chief Justice, Keane, agreed with the conclusions, reasons and proposed order in a judgment by Fennelly J in a case brought by Patrick Blanchfield against Judge William Hartnett, the Director of Public Prosecutions and Judge C Kelly. The judgment excerpt does not state the proposed order’s terms or the case’s underlying dispute.
Keane C.J. added a brief comment on Slattery’s Limited v Commissioner of Valuation and Another and His Honour Judge Liam Devally, an unreported decision delivered on 13 July 2001. He noted that Slattery had distinguished the English case Wandsworth London Borough Council v Winder [1985] AC 461 because the Commissioner of Valuation, whose determination was challenged, was not a party to those proceedings. The proceedings in Slattery were also not criminal proceedings.
Keane identified another distinction: Slattery concerned recovery of rates. He cited Guardians of the New Ross Union v Byrne (130 LR (Ir.) 160), which he said established that an occupier who had been rated could not challenge excess or exemption as a defence against a rate that was valid on its face; the route was an appeal. If the person rated did not occupy the premises, however, that person could raise the rate’s invalidity as a defence.
On that basis, Keane said that joining the Commissioner of Valuation as a defendant in Slattery would not have changed the result. The excerpt contains only Keane’s concurring judgment and does not set out Fennelly J’s full reasons or the order made by the court.