The High Court decided yesterday that a District Judge was wrong to have struck out, on the basis of alleged non-compliance with time limits, summonses against a construction company relating to an accident three years ago in which a man was seriously injured falling from a scaffold and later died.
On July 24th, 2000, Mr Patrick O'Kane, an employee of BJN Construction Ltd, fell from scaffolding at a house being built at Portarlington, Co Laois. He sustained serious injuries and died four days later.
An investigation was carried out by gardaí and the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health. An inquest was held on January 26th, 2001.
Within six months, a number of summonses were issued from Portarlington District Court against BJN.
The authority was named as the prosecutor.
The summonses were struck out because of some difficulty with service. They were reissued and made returnable for November 2001.
The summonses were again struck out, the court being informed it was now intended to proceed by indictment rather than by summary proceedings.
Fresh summonses were issued some 15 months after the date of Mr O'Kane's fall.
Counsel for BJN applied for an order striking out the summonses as they had not been issued within time. The District Judge struck out the summonses.
Yesterday, in a reserved judgment, Mr Justice Peart said the District Judge was not correct and had wrongly applied certain case law to certain summonses.