The High Court has rejected Ann Osbourne’s claim for damages arising from a Garda search at her Fitzgerald Park apartment, finding that a technical defect in the search warrant did not make the officers’ conduct a deliberate or conscious violation of her rights.
In a judgment delivered on 13 April 2006, Mr Justice Clarke found that the warrant for No. 45 Fitzgerald Park was invalid because the statutory basis did not permit a warrant founded only on the possibility that the property might be used as an escape route. He was satisfied, however, that the officer who sought it had reasonable grounds for his belief, accurately explained that belief to the Peace Commissioner on oath, and acted in good faith. The commissioner also acted in good faith. The court found no evidence that the officers executing the warrant knew of the defect.
The claim followed a Garda operation on 15 August 1995 to search apartments at Nos. 44 and 45 while pursuing Robert Merrigan, who was suspected of involvement in a burglary. The judgment records that Gardaí entered No. 45 and arrested Merrigan after a struggle. The events involving Osbourne were disputed.
Osbourne said she entered her apartment and saw Gardaí beating Merrigan with batons. She alleged that officers threw her against a mantelpiece, kicked her and stood on her foot as they removed her. Garda witnesses said they had no recollection of seeing her inside. The defendants accepted that she might have been outside the apartment and could have been injured during scuffles as Merrigan was taken away.
The judge found inconsistencies between Osbourne’s trial evidence and an earlier account that officers had broken down her door while she stood beside them with a key. He also found a conflict over whether she entered before or after Merrigan’s mother. Accepting the Garda evidence that a hostile crowd gathered and that people physically abused officers as they left with Merrigan, he was not satisfied that Osbourne was injured as she described. He found it more probable that she was outside trying to get into her home and was injured during the crowd’s physical action against Gardaí.
The court concluded that the manner in which the warrant was executed did not give rise to damages on the findings made. It also held that the warrant’s technical invalidity, without deliberate or conscious violation of rights, did not support a damages claim. Osbourne’s claim therefore failed. The judgment did not find that the warrant was valid; it rejected the claim on the basis of good faith and the court’s findings about the disputed events.