The Supreme Court has ruled that a damages claim arising from an alleged intentional assault by gardaí near Wayside Celtic Football Grounds in Stepaside was subject to a six-year limitation period.
Terence Devlin brought proceedings alleging assault and battery by two members of An Garda Síochána on 12 August 1991. His plenary summons was issued exactly three years later, on 12 August 1994.
One of the garda defendants, Denis Sheehan, was added to the proceedings by a High Court order in February 1997. He argued that the claim against him was barred by the Statute of Limitations because personal injury actions based on negligence, nuisance or breach of duty generally had to be brought within three years.
Mr Devlin accepted that any negligence or breach-of-statutory-duty case against Mr Sheehan was out of time. The remaining issue was whether the allegation of intentional assault and battery also fell within the three-year rule or instead came under the general six-year limitation period for tort claims.
The High Court, through Morris P., held that the assault claim was not statute-barred. Mr Sheehan appealed.
Mr Justice Geoghegan, delivering the Supreme Court judgment, agreed with the High Court. He held that the statutory phrase “breach of duty” should not be stretched to include a deliberate assault merely because every tort could broadly be described as involving some breach of a legal obligation.
The court distinguished intentional trespass to the person from negligence and the particular types of breach of duty covered by the shorter personal-injury limitation period.
The appeal was therefore dismissed. The ruling settled only the limitation issue: it did not decide whether the alleged assault occurred or whether any defendant was liable for damages.
Mr Justice Geoghegan also expressly left open the separate question of how the limitation legislation would apply to an allegation of unintentional trespass to the person.