An Isaac Wunder order is an order issued by an Irish court restricting the ability of a vexatious litigant to institute legal proceedings without leave from that or another court, whether for a specified period of time or indefinitely. It is named after Isaac Wunder, an Irishman who became notorious for instituting a number of actions that were subsequently deemed by the court to be frivolous or vexatious.

Origins

In the mid-1960s, the plaintiff in ''Keaveney v. Geraghty'' sought damages for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

in proceedings before the High Court. The

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...

applied for a

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on the grounds that they were, '' inter alia,'' frivolous and vexatious, and an abuse of process. The court granted the stay, whereupon the plaintiff appealed. The

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

varied the ruling to provide that no further proceedings on the action could be taken without leave of the court. A few years later, Isaac Wunder sued the Irish Hospitals Trust, also known as the Irish Sweepstake, for claimed sweepstakes winnings. His claims were dismissed as frivolous and vexatious. Wunder appealed. Wunder had made several claims against the defendants on the matter, and in each case the claims had been ruled groundless. In the light of this history of repeated attempts to get a more favourable ruling on the same issue, the Supreme Court issued an order similar to that issued in ''Keaveney'', directing that Wunder could take no further proceedings on the matter at the High Court. Although this was not the first order of its kind issued, it nonetheless became known as the "Isaac Wunder order". The High Court subsequently described in ''Riordan v. Ireland (No. 5)'' the court's inherent jurisdiction to make an order "where the court is satisfied that a person has habitually or persistently instituted vexatious or frivolous civil proceedings". The Court of Appeal endorsed this and confirmed that an order "preserves

he subject's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

constitutional right of access to the courts and merely requires that it be exercised only where heycan satisfy the President of the High Court that heyought to be permitted to bring the particular intended proceedings".

Cases

* 2010: John Burke, a farmer from County Tipperary, took seven sets of judicial review proceedings to the High Court, challenging proceedings against him in the District Court and the Circuit Court. The High Court issued an Isaac Wunder order against him, preventing him from taking further such proceedings without leave from the President of the High Court. * 2010: A married woman, identified only as "LO'M", began separation proceedings in 2000 against her husband, identified only as "JO'M". During the course of the next four years, more than a hundred days were spent on the action. JO'M sued his wife's

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

s for 6 million

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, claiming conspiracy and extortion. The High Court imposed an Isaac Wunder order, barring him from further proceedings against the solicitors without the court's approval. * 2017: The High Court issued an Isaac Wunder order against Ruth Moram who had taken a series of cases against the

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and their members in relation to her ejection from the group. * 2020: In a dispute over 4 1/2 acres given by the parents of two brothers to one son in 1981 with an agreement that the parents could live in the dwelling until their death. Upon the death of the last parent in 2010, one of the sons sought to challenge his brother's legal right as the owner of the land. The complainant issued multiple proceedings in high court, circuit court, district court and appealed to the Supreme Court. With the litigation lasting over 10 years and costs exceeding the value of the land - the court issued an Isaac Wunder order to prevent further litigation on the issue. The Court of Appeal later widened the scope of the order and banned the son in question from taking ''any'' proceedings against his brother without leave of that court.Slattery -v- Slattery 022IECA 181

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , url = http://www.jsijournal.ie/html/Volume%201%20No.%201/1%5B1%5D_Moore_Isaac%20Wunder%20Orders.pdf , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110725152602/http://www.jsijournal.ie/html/Volume%201%20No.%201/1 Moore_Isaac%20Wunder%20Orders.pdf , archive-date = 2011-07-25 , title = Isaac Wunder Orders , last = Moore , first = Anthony , publisher = Judicial Studies Institute Journal (Ireland) , accessdate = 2011-06-18 , url-status = dead {{Cite court , litigants = Wunder v. Hospitals Trust , court = Supreme Court of Ireland , reporter = (unreported) , date = 24 January 1967 ''(Walsh, Haugh and O'Keeffe JJ)'' {{cite web , url = http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0221/1224290420392.html , title = Judge imposes an Isaac Wunder order on Tipperary farmer , publisher = The Irish Times , date = 2011-02-21 , accessdate = 2011-06-17 , archive-date = 2012-10-24 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121024034455/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0221/1224290420392.html , url-status = live {{cite web , url = http://www.thepost.ie/businessoflaw/husband-banned-from-bringing-more-cases-51718.html , title = Husband banned from bringing more cases , author = Kieron Wood , publisher = The Sunday Business Post Online (Ireland) , date = 2010-09-19 , accessdate = 2011-06-17 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110928164021/http://www.thepost.ie/businessoflaw/husband-banned-from-bringing-more-cases-51718.html , archive-date = 2011-09-28 , url-status = dead Civil procedure Supreme Court of Ireland cases Republic of Ireland case law Abuse of the legal system

Origins

Cases

See also

References