The Gazette 1982

CIA/E T N

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1982

Notice - with proof of service on the local authority - is filed with the County Registrar or the District Court Clerk, as the case may be, and serves to set the application down for hearing. A claim becomes statute barred three years from the date of service of the Preliminary Notice. An appeal by way of re-hearing lies at the instance of any party - and it should be remembered that the Act retains the right of a ratepayer to appear in any application-against a decision of the District Court to the Circuit Court and against a decision of the Circuit Court to the High Court. Section 18 introduces a flexible case stated procedure to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on any point of law arising during the hearing EFFECT ON LOCAL AUTHORITIES The local authorities will welcome; (a) recognition of what has long been the practice -that claims will now be made only against the County Council or the Corporation and that the smaller local authorities disappear from the picture; (b) the simplicity of awards being payable by the county at large and not specific localities; (c) the recognition by statute of the administrative practice by which the Department of the Environment refunded the excess of awards over the yield of twenty pence in the pound from local rates

vary the amount specified at £100 in the Act. Section 12 shuts out compensation where the applicant connived at, assisted in or actively facilitated the causing of the damage or was associated with the damage feasor. Such damage as is attributable to failure of the applicant to minimise his loss is also irrecoverable. Failure by the applicant to take precautions to avoid the damage and his conduct generally allows the court to reduce the amount of compensation. An Exception to the no-compensation-for-larceny rule arises when more than £100 worth of damage is caused to a building or to property within the curtilage of a building by a group of three or more persons tumultuously and riotously assembled together, and, in the course of the riot, any property is unlawfully taken from the building, the person who suffers the loss of the property taken can claim compensation - (Section 6). ONUS OF PROOF The applicant for compensation must prove, on a balance of probabilities, that (1) property in which he could be described as having an insurable interest and for the making good of which he is responsible has been destroyed or damaged. (2) the injury to such property was caused in one or more of the ways set out in section 5. (3) he thereby suffered loss, and (4) the amount of that loss. The applicant will normally attempt to agree the amount of loss and/or existence of malice with the respondent local authority and thus dispose of the application on settlement or, at least, thus reduce the issues to be tried by the court. PROCEDURE The procedure is that within 14 days after the damage was caused (or the property taken in a riot) the applicant serves a Preliminary Notice in the prescribed form in accordance with section 8 and with the Malicious Injuries (Preliminary Notice) Regulations 1981 (S.I. No. 319 of 1981). The notice is served on the respondent local authority (either the county council or the county borough council) and on the member in charge of the Garda Station - in both cases, for the areas where the damage was caused or the property was taken. The person who served the Preliminary Notice may then serve an application to the court for compensation. This application is known as Final Notice and will be made in accordance with rules of court. If the amount claimed is £2500 or less, the application is brought in the District Court in the District Court district in which the damage was caused while if the amount claimed exceeds £2500 the application is brought in the Circuit Court circuit in which the damage was caused. A Notice may be served personally or by registered post and can be effected by the solicitor or other authorised agent of the applicant; it does not have to be served by a Summons Server. The Final Notice is served on the local authority on which the Preliminary Notice had been served. This

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN IRELAND The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is a privately owned Institution founded in 1784. It has responsibility for post-graduate education of surgeons, radiologists, anaesthetists, dentists and nurses. The College manages an International Medical School for the training of doctors, many of whom come from Third World countries where there is a great demand and need for doctors. Research in the College includes work on cancer, thrombosis, high blood pressure, heart and blood vessel disease, blindness, mental handicap, birth defects and many other human ailments. The College being an independent institution is financed largely through gifts and donations. Your donation, covenant or legacy, will help to keep the College in the forefront of medical research and medical education. The College is officially recog- nised as a Charity by the Revenue Commis- sioners. All contributions will be gratefully re- ceived.

Enquiries to: Hie Registrar, Royal Colege of Swgeons in Ireland, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2.

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