The Gazette 1977

GAZETTE

APRIL 1977

this Circular, the Manager submitted

particulars to the Department of all

applicants. The Department then

"short listed" those applicants in

alphabetical order, and, provided that

the Manager subsequently decided to

appoint one of those short listed, the

sanction of the Minister to such an

appointment was automatic.

On 3 June 1974, Canon Ahern

interviewed the plaintiff for the post.

He informed him that he was the next

candidate on the list. Canon Ahern

then offered the post to the plaintiff,

provided he could take up his

appointment on 1 July 1974. The

plaintiff accepted these terms, and

Canon Ahern wrote a confirmatory

letter of appointment.

One of the unsuccessful candi-

dates for the post was Mr. Denis

Lynch who was an assistant teacher

at the school. Mr. Lynch was

informed of this by Canon Ahern,

and he informed the Treasurer of the

Cork City Branch, Mr. O'Shea, that

he had been unsuccessful, and that

the plaintiff was not a member of the

I.N.T.O. Mr. O'Shea advised Mr.

Lynch to inform Canon Ahern of

this, which he did on 6 July. Canon

Ahern then sent for the plaintiff, and

informed him of the position, but did

not suggest he was cancelling

the appointment. The plaintiff

then visited one of the defendants,

Mr. Motherway, who was the

secretary of the local Branch of the

I.N.T.O., and gave a brief resume of

his dispute with the I.N.T.O. in 1972

which had led to his resignation, but

now asked to be re-instated. On the

morning of 6 June, there had been a

meeting of the Cork City Branch of

the I.N.T.O. The Chairman, Mr.

Hurley, had telephoned the General

Secretary of the I.N.T.O., Senator

Brosnahan, to enquire whether the

Department of Education had

sanctioned plaintiff's appointment as

Principal of Ovens School and

Senator Brosnahan was informed by

the Department that no appointment

had as yet been made. It was then

decided that Mr. Hurley and Mr.

Motherway should make representa-

tions to Canon Ahern.

As Canon Ahern was about

75 years of age, it was finally decided

that the Chairman (Mr. Hurley), the

Vice-Chairman, Mr. Garvey, and the

Treasurer, Mr. O'Shea, would visit

him.

When the visit took place, they

informed Canon Ahern of their dis-

satisfaction with his decision to

appoint the plaintiff as Principal

of Ovens Schoo l. On being

requested to furnish the information

whether he had obtained the approval

of the Bishop of Cork to this appoint-

ment, Canon Ahern replied that he

had not yet sought for this approval.

The delegation then intimated

that they were prepared to discuss

the a p p o i n t me nt wi th the

Bishop of Cork, and Canon Ahern

then expressed the view that the

appointment might be cancelled. He

followed this up, by writing a letter to

the plaintiff on 6 June, cancelling the

appointment he had made on 4 June.

Canon Ahern intimated to the

delegation that he would appoint Mr.

Lynch as Principal, and asked

them to insert an advertisement in the

Cork Examiner

for an assistant

teacher in the school. The plaintiff

was then able to persuade the

Manager of New Inn school to retain

him as Vice-Principal. In May 1975,

the plaintiff applied for many posts as

Principal in the Cork area and was

nearly appointed Principal of St

Peter and Paul's School, Cork, but

the Manager, having consulted the

local officials of the I.N.T.O., who

were opposed to his appointment,

declined to appoint him. In the end,

the plaintiff eventually applied for,

and accepted the post of Principal of

one of the National Schools in Bray,

Co. Wicklow.

The President is satisfied that the

local officials in Cork of the I.N.T.O.

tried to ensure as far as possible that

all national teachers in the area

should be members of the I.N.T.O., a

duly registered trade union. The

officials went so far as to circulate at

the back of their balance sheet every

year a list of teachers in the Cork

City area, who were not members of

the organisation, and, from 1974,

this list included the plaintiff. The

visit of the officials to Canon Ahern

on 6 June was to use the most

powerful pressure to prevent the ap-

pointment of the plaintiff as Principal,

solely due to the fact that he was not

a member. There was an undoubted

oral agreement, supplemented by a

collateral letter on 4 June, that

Canon Ahern would appoint the

plaintiff Principal of Ovens School

from 1 July 1974. By not seeking the

sanction either of the Bishop or of the

Department of Education, Canon

Ahern had clearly committed a

breach of contract with the plaintiff.

The President is also satisfied that the

other defendants, the officials of the

Cork City Branch of the I.N.T.O.,

induced the breach of contract by

Canon Ahern with the plaintiff. In all

the circumstances, Canon Ahern

must have taken upon himself the

implied obligation of seeking in a

genuine and

bona fide

way the

approval of the Bishop and of the

Minister.

The President, on the basis of the

judgment of Walsh J., delivering the

Supreme Court judgment in

Meskell

CJ£.,

(1973) I.R. 121, is quite

satisfied that the defendants were

guilty of an actionable conspiracy in

this case. It is clear that agreement by

two or more persons to prevent the

promotion of a National Teacher as

part of a campaign to ensure that he

and all National Teachers in the area

must be members of a trade union is

to seek to coerce or penalise that

person into waiving his consti-

tutional right to dissociate, and as

such is an actionable conspiracy.

These defendants are thus liable to

the plaintiff for conspiracy as well as

breach of contract.

As regards damages from Canon

Ahern, the plaintiff is entitled to the

damage and loss suffered as a result

of the natural and probable conse-

quences of the breach by the

defendant, i.e. the services of the

plaintiff as Principal for the school

year, 1974-75, and the difference of

salary between a Principal of a

school and a Vice-Principal, which

amounts to £376.24.

The conspiracy proved against the

defendant officials was not only

proved in respect of 1974 but

continued right into 1975. They are,

therefore, liable for all the miscell-

aneous expenses which the plaintiff

and his family incurred in trans-

ferring to Bray, and which amount to

a total of £1,562.55. Accordingly,

judgment will be given against all the

defendants including the Canon,

jointly in the sum of £376.24

previously mentioned, and a separate

judgment jointly and severally in the

sum of £1,562.55 against the

officials of the Cork City Branch of

the I.N.T.O. defendants in this

action. The real and effective cause of

the breach of contract by Canon

Ahern was the action of the four

other defendants in furtherance of

their actionable conspiracy against

the plaintiff. There will accordingly

be an order of contribution, by which

these four defendants will have to re-

imburse Canon Ahern in full.

Cotter v. Canon Ahern, Hurley,

Garvey, O'Shea and Motherway —

Finlay P. — unreported — 25

February 1977.