A Garda has lost a claim for up to £30,000 damages for alleged breach of confidence against St Raphael's Garda Credit Union Ltd and one of its directors.
Garda Aidan O'Brien, of Brookdale Lawns, Rivervalley, Swords, Co Dublin, had sued the Credit Union and Garda Aidan O Murchu, Hainault Drive, Kerrymount Rise, Foxrock, Co Dublin, on the basis that Garda O Murchu had publicly divulged the status of his shares and loan accounts.
Judge Raymond Groarke heard Garda O Murchu and Garda O'Brien had a brief early-morning conversation in the presence of two other gardai after a banquet following a Garda Representative Association conference in the Corrib Hotel, Galway, in 1994.
Garda O'Brien claimed Garda O Murchu divulged he had just obtained a £5,000 loan from the credit union, that his shares were £4,700, that he had total loans of £13,000 and could obtain cheap loans from the bank where his wife worked.
Garda O Murchu told the court he was assistant treasurer of the credit union at the time and Garda O'Brien had made certain inquiries of him regarding future loans. He said he had advised him privately and confidentially about his future prospects, which he felt were good, on the basis of figures which Garda O'Brien himself had quoted to him.
Judge Groarke said it was an unfortunate and sad case, where members of the Garda Siochana found it necessary that an issue of triviality should be bandied about in the courts.
While concluding that Garda O'Brien had been correct in his account of what had happened, he found the conversation had taken place in quietude and relative privacy and involved only four members of the gardai who had been discussing affairs which bound all of them together.
"To take umbrage, offence or insult in the manner Mr O'Brien has done seems to me to be considerably overstepping the mark," Judge Groarke said. "This entire incident constitutes a storm in a tea cup and Mr O'Brien is not entitled to any relief whatsoever." He told Mr Terry O'Sullivan, counsel for Garda O'Brien, and Mr Sean Ryan, counsel for Garda O Murchu and the credit union, that he would make no order as to costs.