The sister of a man found dead at the end of the stairs in his home in what she believed were suspicious circumstances has asked the Supreme Court for an order giving her access to certain documents in the possession of the coroner before an inquest takes place.
The three-judge court yesterday heard an appeal by Gerard Hogan SC, for Nuala Ramseyer, against the High Court's refusal of April 2004 to permit her see the documents before the inquest into the death of her brother James Goonan (51), in Birr, Co Offaly, in 2002.
The appeal concluded yesterday afternoon and the court reserved its judgment.
A company director of Castlewarden, Straffan, Co Kildare, she brought proceedings against Brian McMahon, acting coroner for Co Offaly, seeking access to documents in the coroner's possession.
Ms Ramseyer said her brother died on March 11th, 2002, at his home at Hawthorn Drive, Crinkle, Birr. He was found dead at the foot of the stairs. A post-mortem was carried out by the State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, and gardaí were called to the scene.
Ms Ramseyer said the possibility that her brother died after falling down the stairs appeared to be plausible initially, but some matters surrounding the death had caused her to become concerned that it might not have been accidental.
These matters included the admission of a person to a mental hospital shortly after Mr Goonan's death and the removal of some clothes covered in blood from this person.
It was unclear whether the clothes were ever handed over to gardaí, she said.
When she went to her brother's bedroom in his house, it was covered in blood.
A life-assurance policy had been taken out six to eight weeks before he died. She had suspicions about the actions of a couple of people in or about the time of death, and was concerned that the circumstances surrounding his death were not being properly investigated by gardaí.
The postmortem report which she received had recorded the cause of death as "haemorrhage and shock from laceration of the head". It also cited alcohol and heart disease as contributory factors.
It appeared gardaí had decided not to take the matter any further and that Dr Cassidy considered that death had occurred by natural causes.
Ms Ramseyer believed she could not properly prepare for the inquest or seek adequate legal advice when she had no idea what evidence would be tendered at the inquest.
In his reserved judgment of April 2004 rejecting Ms Ramseyer's application, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy said it seemed Ms Ramseyer had asked the coroner that she be given all information without distinction.
She was seeking to expand the role of the coroner's inquest beyond the statutory requirement which confined it to ascertaining the identity of the dead person and when and where the death occurred.
Ms Ramseyer was entitled to be represented at the inquest, but she had not established how she was being prejudiced by the failure to see the material she sought, the judge held.