High Court adjourns Angela Kerins' damages claim over PAC treatment

A damages claim by former Rehab CEO Angela Kerins over her treatment by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has been adjourned at the High Court to January.

The matter was briefly mentioned before the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, today.

The judge told the sides he had received no papers in advance and, in those circumstances, the matter was adjourned until January.

Ms Kerins is seeking to embark on the second leg of her case, which includes a claim for damages, over her treatment before two hearings of the PAC in 2014. It is understood her lawyers had in recent months sought a non-binding mediation of the claim which has not received a positive response from the respondents.

Ms Kerins’ High Court action was initiated in 2014 and that court decided in 2015 it should proceed via two modules.

The first module concerned whether the courts had jurisdiction to interfere with hearings before Oireachtas Committees.

Other issues, including any entitlement to damages, were parked pending the outcome of that.

In its judgment on the first module in January 2017, a three judge High Court was strongly critical of the PAC’s treatment of Ms Kerins but concluded, because of the constitutional separation of powers, the courts could not intervene.

Ms Kerins appealed to the Supreme Court which, in a landmark judgment, found the PAC acted unlawfully in its treatment of Ms Kerins in that it acted outside its terms of reference and of its invitation to Ms Kerins to appear before it.

The seven judge court granted a declaration against the Dáil to that effect last May.

It directed that any further dispute between the sides, including whether there was any entitlement to damages, should be decided, in the first instance, by the High Court.

It could not be assumed there was an entitlement to damages and any such claim raised novel issues of law, the court said.

The second leg of Ms Kerins case involves claims for misfeasance in public office, breach of constitutional rights and damages arising from her treatment by the PAC.

She is seeking substantial damages over her treatment before the PAC when she was questioned by some members about matters including her €240,000 annual salary and the salaries of other Rehab officials.

That treatment, she has claimed, amounted to a “witchhunt” and lead to an attempt by her to take her own life and to other fundamental life changes, including significant financial loss.

Her damages claim is expected to include claims for loss of her annual salary, bonuses and company car with Rehab from the time of her resignation in 2014 to retirement age.

She is also expected to claim over the impact of her resignation on her pension.

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