The High Court has ordered the immediate release of an anonymised father from Midlands Prison after finding that the contempt order under which he was detained was not lawful.
Mr B had been committed to prison by the Circuit Court on December 3, 2015 for three months, with provision for earlier release if he paid €50,000 towards maintenance arrears owed to Ms C, the mother of his child.
The family-law proceedings were anonymised because they concern the care of a minor.
The dispute arose after the Circuit Court awarded Ms C €62,900 in maintenance arrears in June 2015 and directed Mr B to pay €50,000 within 14 days. An earlier undertaking given by Mr B in July 2014 had required him to retain €50,000 from a land sale pending the full hearing of the maintenance motion.
Mr Justice Max Barrett held that this undertaking had expired by the time the full hearing ended. That meant the December committal order could not lawfully rest on breach of that undertaking.
The alternative interpretation was that Mr B had been imprisoned for failure to pay part of the maintenance judgment. However, the High Court held that the relevant Circuit Court Rules did not permit attachment or committal simply to enforce payment of money.
There was a further defect. The order imposed a fixed three-month prison term but also allowed Mr B to end his imprisonment by paying €50,000. Applying the Supreme Court's decision in Laois County Council v Hanrahan, the High Court held that this impermissibly mixed punishment for past contempt with coercion designed to secure future compliance.
The ruling does not erase the Circuit Court's finding that Mr B was in contempt or resolve his maintenance liabilities. Those matters remain. The High Court instead set aside the committal order, directed his release under Article 40.4.2° of the Constitution and proposed sending the matter back to the Circuit Court to consider what lawful order should follow.