A DISTRICT court judge yesterday refused to allow a local authority to disconnect water supplies to a number of Dublin houses because they are in joint ownership.
Rathfarnham District Court, however, granted disconnection orders to South Dublin County Council in the cases of 14 Templeogue householders, who were not represented in court.
The court also awarded costs of £300 to the council in each case. A further 66 cases were struck out at the council's request.
The president of the District Court, Judge Peter Smithwick, ruled after three hours of legal argument that where two people were the legal owners, both were entitled to the same notification from the council.
In the case of Mr Joseph McGowan, of 4 Orwell Park Heights, Templeogue, he found that Mr McGowan's wife was not notified. "The making of such an order would of necessity cut Mrs McGowan's water off, too," the judge said.
He rejected submissions from Mr John Gallagher SC, for the council, that such a procedure was "unfair and unjust to the council and to compliant householders". Mr Gallagher argued that the council followed the proper procedure in all cases and requested time to take further instructions.
Mr Patrick McNamara, of the council's finance department, said he had "taken a number of measures to ensure the occupier was the person named in the application before the court".
When questioned by Mr Terry O'Sullivan SC, for the respondents, he said he had also "checked the payment system on January 17th and found Mr McGowan was £105 in arrears".
Judge Smithwick said he was "satisfied with the council's definition of the term `occupier' and that the documents were properly served". He also ruled that the onus on proving hardship was on the respondent, not the local authority, but he said the court could only grant disconnection orders "after the procedures recently laid down by the Dail applied to both owners, not just one
Rejecting a submission by Mr Gallagher for a short adjournment to allow Mrs McGowan to come to court, Judge Smithwick said he could not short circuit the procedure. Mrs McGowan was entitled to exactly the same procedure under the 1995 Act, he said.
The case of Mr John Farrell, of 221 Orwell Park Heights, Templeogue, also a joint owner, was adjourned to February 1st for similar reasons, when a further 50 cases are expected to be heard.