Cases against two directors and an officer of Zoe Developments, relating to safety requirements at one of its building sites where a worker fell to his death, may not go ahead.
Mr Liam Carroll, Mr David Tarpey, and Mr Keith Henderson face summonses for alleged breaches of the 1989 Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act.
But they may not now be heard following a challenge by their lawyer, Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, to a decision of District Court Judge James McDonnell to order they be tried in the Circuit Court.
It is alleged Mr Carroll and Mr Tarpey, as company directors, and Mr Henderson, as an officer, breached safety requirements during the construction of an apartment building at Charlotte Quay, Dublin, on November 3rd, 1997, when Mr James Masterson fell to his death.
Separate cases against the company and against the sub-contractor which employed Mr Masterson are to be heard in the Circuit Court on the instructions of the DPP.
However, Dublin District Court heard yesterday that the DPP had declined to have the cases of Messrs Carroll, Tarpey and Henderson dealt with on indictment. The National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) had decided therefore that they should be tried at district court level.
Judge McDonnell was told of the NAOSH "desire" to prosecute the three individuals in the lower court, but after hearing an outline of the accident in which Mr Masterson died, Judge McDonnell said he was satisfied it was not a minor offence which could be tried in the district court and was refusing jurisdiction. He would adjourn it so a book of evidence could be prepared.
However, Mr Hardiman said once Judge McDonnell refused jurisdiction "that was the end of the matter".
There was no prosecutor before the court to take it any further because the DPP had said he would not do so, Mr Hardiman said. The NAOSH was not empowered to do so and had already indicated it didn't wish to have the case tried in the Circuit Court.
Judge McDonnell granted an adjournment to January to allow the NAOSH to consider the situation.