The High Court has struck out Albert George Sugg’s claim against the Legal Aid Board over its refusal to provide legal representation for an earlier Supreme Court appeal concerning the treatment of his late wife.
Mr Sugg had pursued negligence proceedings against Dr O’Keeffe and St Michael’s Hospital after his wife, Margaret, died following a severe heart attack in 1997. He believed her death resulted from aspects of her treatment, including a feeding decision. The defendants disputed liability, and an expert report obtained by Mr Sugg’s former solicitor found no evidence of negligence.
The original High Court proceedings were dismissed after Mr Sugg, acting without legal representation, failed to produce expert medical evidence supporting his claim. He appealed and applied to the Legal Aid Board for assistance with the Supreme Court proceedings.
The Board refused legal aid in November 2004. It said Mr Sugg was unlikely to succeed because there was no evidence of negligence capable of supporting an appeal and because the likely costs outweighed the benefit to him. An internal appeal was also refused.
The Supreme Court later dismissed Mr Sugg’s underlying appeal in October 2005, holding that his negligence case was unsustainable without expert medical evidence and amounted to an abuse of process. The court expressly said this did not call into question the sincerity of his belief about his wife’s treatment.
Mr Sugg subsequently sued the Legal Aid Board, alleging that it had wrongly denied him representation and seeking damages.
Feeney J held that the Board had acted within its statutory powers, which required it to consider whether an applicant had reasonable grounds and was likely to succeed. Given the Supreme Court’s later ruling on the same underlying claim, the High Court found no factual or legal basis for saying the Board’s refusal was wrongful.
The claim was therefore struck out under Order 19, rule 28 and the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction, meaning the case was dismissed at an early stage because it disclosed no viable legal cause of action.