The High Court has ruled that Louis Blehein is not entitled to damages from the State after successfully having a provision of Ireland’s former mental health legislation declared unconstitutional.
Section 260 of the Mental Treatment Act 1945 had required a person to obtain court permission before bringing certain proceedings relating to acts carried out under the legislation. Blehein successfully challenged that restriction, with the Supreme Court affirming in 2008 that the section was unconstitutional.
The remaining issue was whether that finding also entitled him to compensation.
Blehein argued that section 260 had prevented him from pursuing claims arising from three periods when he was involuntarily admitted to St John of God Hospital in Stillorgan: from February to May 1984, January to April 1987, and January to February 1991. He disputed the basis for those admissions and alleged wrongdoing connected with his detention and treatment.
Ms Justice Laffoy examined proceedings Blehein had attempted to bring in 1997, 1998 and 1999. The court found that, even without section 260, those claims would probably have failed because the relevant defendants would have pleaded the Statute of Limitations successfully.
At the latest, the court found, Blehein’s causes of action had accrued by 8 July 1991, when he wrote to the Inspector of Mental Hospitals setting out detailed complaints about his admissions and treatment. The longest applicable limitation period was six years. The earliest of the later proceedings was not commenced until 30 July 1997.
The court therefore found no compensable loss flowing from section 260 having blocked those cases, because the claims were already out of time.
Blehein also argued that being required to seek leave under the unconstitutional provision had caused humiliation and reputational harm. The court held that the declaration striking down section 260 had sufficiently vindicated those constitutional rights.
An order was made declaring that he had no entitlement to damages against the State defendants.