A challenge by the Minister for Health and Children against a High Court decision allowing hepatitis C victims to appeal awards they had accepted from the hepatitis C tribunal will begin the Supreme Court today.
The High Court had decided in July 2002 that persons who accepted awards from the Hepatitis C Tribunal were not excluded from appealing those awards to the High Court.
The tribunal has awarded over €290 million to hepatitis C victims. That figure could rise considerably if victims who got awards at the tribunal get higher compensation following a claim to the courts.
The Minister is arguing the High Court has no jurisdiction to hear an appeal once the person signed an acceptance of the tribunal's award.
The appeal was to have begun in the Supreme Court before Christmas but was adjourned when the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, one of the five judges on the bench, disqualified himself from hearing the case.
He did so after lawyers for the hepatitis C victim raised the question as to whether the Chief Justice should hear the appeal.
It is expected Mr Justice Geoghegan will now hear the case.