The Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a long-delayed case brought by Robert McGregor & Sons (Ireland) Limited over mining rights in Counties Laois, Carlow and Kilkenny.
Chief Justice Keane dismissed the company's appeal from a High Court order staying its proceedings. The dispute concerned whether minerals covered by the company’s rights qualified as “excepted minerals” under the Minerals Development Act 1979, which would preserve private working rights rather than vesting exclusive working rights in the Minister.
The company applied to the Mining Board in April 1980. In February 1984, the Board rejected the application after finding that satisfactory evidence had not been provided to show that minerals in the relevant areas were being lawfully worked or developed on December 15, 1978.
Although the company indicated it would challenge that determination, it did not begin the proceedings at issue until October 1994. In the intervening years there were discussions with the Minister about a possible mining lease. The company argued that this amounted to a stalemate which explained the delay.
The Supreme Court disagreed. It found the delay of more than a decade both inordinate and inexcusable. The intermittent negotiations about a lease did not justify postponing an application to the High Court.
A central issue was what a High Court application under section 15(4) of the 1979 Act would involve. The company argued that the court would be confined largely to reviewing material already before the Mining Board. The Supreme Court held instead that the High Court could determine the matter on its merits and could hear fresh oral evidence about whether the minerals were being worked or developed in 1978.
That finding was decisive on prejudice. The Minister would have to meet evidence concerning events nearly a quarter of a century old, with memories diminished by time. The judgment also recorded that a principal expert witness, Michael O’Meara, had died in 1986.
The Supreme Court therefore held that the balance of justice favoured bringing the proceedings to an end and affirmed the High Court order.