The High Court has struck out Kevin Taylor's personal injuries proceedings against a security worker arising from events at Falsk, Strokestown, County Roscommon, but has allowed his wider claim against the worker's employer to continue.
Taylor's case arises from events on December 11, 2018 during an attempt to execute a possession order at the property. His pleadings allege that he was pushed to the ground, dragged across concrete, pinned down, punched and kicked by four or five men.
G.S. Agencies Limited, which provides security and eviction services, and its employee Ian Gordan applied to have Taylor's case against them dismissed. They relied in particular on Taylor's criminal conviction on August 1, 2021 for assaulting Gordan during the same events.
Taylor accepted the conviction but argued that it did not determine whether private security personnel had acted lawfully or whether there had been broader failures in planning, controlling or carrying out the eviction.
Ms Justice Nuala Jackson drew a distinction between the two defendants.
The judge held that Taylor's claim against Gordan personally was an abuse of process, was bound to fail and had no reasonable prospect of succeeding. Taylor was seeking damages from the person he had been convicted of assaulting, while the conviction itself was not under challenge.
The court also dismissed the case against Gordan on delay grounds because of particular prejudice established in his affidavit concerning the impact of the events and subsequent proceedings on him and his family.
The claim against G.S. Agencies Limited survived. The judge held that the allegations against the company extended beyond the individual confrontation and included alleged systemic failures in the planning and execution of the eviction. Taylor's conviction could be important evidence at trial, but it did not determine those wider allegations at this preliminary stage.
The court found that the overall delays had not crossed the Supreme Court's two-year inactivity threshold for dismissal against the company. Taylor was directed to bring any application to amend his pleadings within 21 days.