Landladies ordered to pay students €115,000 in damages

Two Dublin landladies have been ordered to pay damages totalling more than €115,000 to 10 students who were tenants in their house after the Circuit Court found they had kept the students under secret electronic surveillance.

The tenants, from Mayo, Galway, Donegal, Armagh and Monaghan, rented rooms in 46 Mobhi Road in Glasnevin from Rita McKenna and her daughter, Edel, in 2003 and 2004 while studying at the nearby colleges, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin City University and St Patrick's College in Drumcondra.

The students became concerned in late 2004 that their conversations and activities were being monitored when the McKennas referred to details the students had discussed in private in the house. When they raised the issue with the McKennas, the students were evicted.

One tenant, Patricia Hegarty, brought a case against the mother and daughter in 2004, which was later settled out of court. Ten more tenants of the McKennas subsequently sued them for breach of privacy. The case was heard last Thursday and Friday, and on Monday of this week.

Judge Gerard Griffin yesterday found that the evidence in the case left him "in no doubt whatsoever that the defendants had kept these plaintiffs under electronic surveillance".

The judge said he could not say whether it was audio or video surveillance or both, but he was concerned that yellow wires found in the house were of the international standard used for video recording.

The wires were found during a search on December 3rd, 2004, when Ms Hegarty's solicitor and a garda called to the house on the back of a court order. Solicitor Fergus Gallagher and Garda Alan Sherlock found themselves locked out of the house by the McKennas when they arrived.

The judge said the evidence of Mr Gallagher and Garda Sherlock left him with the "inescapable conclusion that both defendants set out to obstruct and nullify the order of this court, as I find that their conduct has no other rational explanation".

The students paid €80 a week for a shared room and €90 for a single room, and an extra €5 for a meter-operated television. The McKennas lived in a separate part of the house. Nine bedrooms in the property were rented out, mostly to students.

The judge said the tenants were "unceremoniously evicted with less than four hours' notice and left to their own devices with their belongings in black bin bags and boxes".

He found the students' rights to privacy had been infringed and he awarded them damages varying from €7,500 to €12,500 each.