The High Court has corrected two errors in its December 2023 judgment on Enoch Burke’s application concerning his appeal hearing, ruling that the changes accurately record what the court intended to include.
Mr Justice Dignam delivered the correction ruling on 15 February 2024. The earlier judgment, delivered electronically on 20 December 2023, concerned Mr Burke’s application for an interlocutory injunction to restrain a hearing of his appeal by the defendants.
The first error was an omitted final paragraph from the “Conclusion” section of a principal’s report, which the December judgment had said should be quoted in full. The paragraph included the principal’s stated concerns about Mr Burke’s public views on transgenderism and his possible future conduct in the school. The second error was the inclusion of the words “He says:” at the end of a paragraph about Mr Burke’s appeal grounds, without a quotation following them.
Mr Burke objected to the proposed corrections. In a letter, he argued that the omitted material was at odds with the earlier judgment’s findings about the conduct issues in the report, and that adding it without further engagement would make the judgment self-contradictory. He also alleged that the omissions were deliberate. The defendants’ solicitors said they would not make submissions and did not consider his complaints substantial. Mr Burke made no further submissions beyond his letter.
The judge said he had considered the entire principal’s report and had intended to quote its conclusion in full, but the final paragraph was accidentally left out during copy-typing. He said “He says:” had been left in during drafting even though he had decided not to quote the relevant section of Mr Burke’s appeal grounds.
Mr Justice Dignam held that the court had jurisdiction under Order 28, Rule 11 of the Rules of the Superior Courts and its inherent jurisdiction to correct the errors. He treated Mr Burke’s arguments about whether the omitted paragraph contradicted the judgment as issues going to the judgment’s merits, which he said it was not appropriate to revisit at this stage. He rejected the allegation that material had been deliberately deleted, describing that claim as misconceived.
The court ordered a corrected version of the December judgment, restoring the paragraph in the quotation and deleting “He says:”. The judge said Mr Burke remained free to raise his arguments on appeal, including by referring to the original version. No order had yet been made on foot of the December judgment. The original was published on the courts.ie website on 10 January 2024; the corrected version was to replace it and the correction ruling was also to be published.