A RULING allowing a group of Dundalk residents to sue British Nuclear Fuels plc in the Irish courts was upheld in the Supreme Court yesterday. BNFL was appealing a High Court decision that the group could sue in this jurisdiction.
The Dundalk group wants to stop BNFL operating its THORP - thermal oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield, Cumbria, England. The building of THORP was completed in February 1992.
Last year, the High Court decided that the Dundalk group, Ms Constance Short, Ms Mary Kavanagh, Mr Mark Dearey and Mr Ollan Herr, could have their action heard in the High Court in the State.
They are also suing Ireland and the Attorney General, claiming they did not take such action as was open to them to protect the personal rights of the plaintiffs against the alleged attack being made on them by the company.
Mr Justice Barrington, giving the unanimous judgment of the five judge Supreme Court, said BNF claimed the Irish courts had no jurisdiction to deal with the plaintiffs' complaints or, if it had, that the Irish courts should decline jurisdiction in respect of some, if not all, the group's complaints.
BNFL submitted that it had complied with all the appropriate procedures in the UK. It had gone through a public inquiry, and obtained the necessary authorisations and permissions under the law of the UK. It had successfully resisted a challenge to its activities in the English courts.
BNFL, in those circumstances, added the judge, said that for the Irish courts to entertain the case, in effect, would be to interfere with the decisions of a neighbouring power, embark on a judicial review of decisions made by the competent authority in another State and fail to respect the decision of the English High Court made within its own jurisdiction.
Mr Paul Callan SC, for the plaintiffs, had denied he was attempting to interfere in any way with the jurisdiction or competence of the UK courts or government.
Mr Justice Barrington said it might be true that the activities of which the plaintiffs complained took place in the UK. But what gave them a cause of action, if they had one, was not the activities as such, but the allegedly harmful results of them in Ireland in the area in which they resided.
It was these allegedly harmful results which gave the Irish courts jurisdiction to deal with the complaints and, if they found the complaints established, to attempt to give the plaintiffs relief, without trespassing on the jurisdiction of the courts of any neighbouring state.
Mr Justice Barrington said, however, that if the case came to be discussed as a case governed by European law, very different considerations might apply.
The present case raised or might raise, difficult questions of far ranging significance. They were too complex and difficult to be disposed of on a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction. They should be left to the trial judge to decide after full debate.
The judge said the plaintiffs claimed the commissioning and operation of THORP constituted, a source of mental distress and psychiatric injury to them and their families, especially having regard to the absence of an environmental assessment and having regard to the conduct of BNFL in relation to the Sellafield site.
The other judges on the bench were the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, Mr Justice O'Flaherty, Mr Justice Blayney and Mrs Justice Denham.