Court Rules Men Cannot Reopen Abuse Claims against State

Irish Times
July 21, 2017

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/court-rules-men-cannot-reopen-abuse-claims-against-state-1.3163036#.WXJlf0okLCc.facebook

Five men who sued over alleged abuse as children in Christian Brothers’ schools have failed in their attempt to have their damages actions against the State restarted.

The men previously discontinued their actions against the Minister for Education and the State after the Supreme Court, in the landmark 2008 case of Louise O’Keeffe, found the State could not be held vicariously liable for the actions of abusers employed in national schools.

In 2016, the High Court said, as a matter of law, the men were not entitled to have the discontinuances set aside. On Friday, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan ruled, on behalf of the three-judge Court of Appeal, that this was the correct decision. MARY CAROLAN