The High Court dismissed an action by mussel industry operators who sought compensation for losses they attributed to the State’s management of mussel seed and the presence of Northern Ireland registered vessels fishing in Irish territorial waters.
Mr Justice Meenan delivered the judgment on 22 March 2019 in proceedings begun in 2006. The plaintiffs alleged breaches of constitutional and statutory duties, negligence, unlawful delegation and legitimate expectation. They said that limited allocations and fishing by Northern Ireland vessels harmed their businesses.
The plaintiffs had invested in vessels and aquaculture sites as the mussel industry expanded. They gave evidence that allocations fell short of what their businesses needed. The court noted, however, that for the most part the amount they actually fished was less than the amount allocated to them.
The judgment records that the Supreme Court had previously ruled in related proceedings that mussel seed is a State owned natural resource and that Northern Ireland registered boats could not lawfully fish for it in Irish territorial waters without legislation. In this case, Mr Justice Meenan found that, had those vessels not fished there, additional seed would have been available to the plaintiffs and other State licensed vessels.
But the court found insufficient evidence to establish how much of that additional seed each plaintiff would have caught, or to quantify losses attributable to the unlawful fishing or alleged mismanagement. Other licensed fishermen and possible new entrants could also have increased their catch. The judge said the court could not calculate each plaintiff’s loss by simply dividing the seed taken by Northern Ireland boats among them.
The court rejected the damages claims under the different legal grounds. It found that the plaintiffs had no personal constitutional right to mussel seed, which belonged to the State, and had not shown that their claimed losses flowed directly from the unlawful fishing. The judge also found no basis for a negligence duty to manage the State’s resource to protect the plaintiffs’ commercial interests, and no sufficient grounds for damages for breach of statutory duty or legitimate expectation.
On unlawful delegation, the judge held that the Minister could give the Seed Mussel Advisory Committee an advisory role while retaining legal responsibility for allocations. Any challenge to particular allocation decisions, the judgment said, would have been a matter for judicial review.
The court dismissed the action. The judge acknowledged that the State had permitted Northern Ireland registered vessels to fish unlawfully for years and that this was to the detriment of the mussel industry, but held that the law and evidence did not allow a remedy for these plaintiffs.