The High Court has quashed South Dublin County Council decisions to withhold a farmer’s horses over unpaid impound fees and later dispose of them, finding the council acted beyond its powers. The court also ordered an assessment of damages for breach of the farmer’s property rights.
Mr Justice Hedigan delivered the judgment on 23 April 2013 in judicial review proceedings brought by Gerard Burke. The dispute followed the seizure of five horses found loose on a public road in June 2011: four belonged to Burke and one to Kevin Dunne, who kept a horse at Burke’s livery. The judgment records that the DSPCA rounded up the horses and they were transferred to the council’s contractor, Cantor Equine Ltd.
Burke told the court that he was ready to reclaim his horses but disputed having to pay the impound fees in advance. The council maintained it could keep them pending payment and said it had offered an instalment arrangement, including €500 upfront. Burke declined that offer. He obtained licences for his four horses while they were held, but the council later received notice that his cheque for three licences had been returned unpaid.
The court found that the law allowed the council to detain horses lacking licences, but did not clearly authorise it to hold them to enforce a debt. Reading the relevant bye-law, the judge concluded that disposal was permitted only where the owner failed to pay or produce a licence and also failed to remove the horse. Burke had obtained licences and was ready to take the horses, but the council refused to release them until fees were paid. The council could instead pursue unpaid charges as a simple contract debt, the judgment said.
The court also criticised failures in the disposal process. The council did not serve the required seizure notice on Burke. The disposal notice was not displayed at the Garda stations or at the place of disposal, and omitted required details. The judgment said there was no full, detailed and credible account of what happened to the horses. The council had first told the High Court they had been rehomed; it later emerged they had been killed. A receipt from a slaughterhouse referred only to five large and four small horses, leaving no reliable evidence tracing Burke’s animals.
The judgment did not determine the amount of damages. It declared the council’s detention and subsequent disposal decisions ultra vires, quashed the decisions to withhold and dispose of the horses, and directed that damages be assessed. The source does not state the eventual damages award.