Sisters who were put off bus lose case

Two sisters who sued Bus Éireann over being asked to get off a bus which they intended to travel on for a trip to Knock shrine in Co Mayo have lost their High Court action for damages for defamation and loss of reputation.

Bernadette Curtis, Joan Dardis, and several family members were asked by a garda to get off the bus at Busáras in Dublin on June 23, 2013, following exchanges with the driver over the payment of fares for their group.

Dismissing their appeal over the circuit court’s rejection of their claim, Mr Justice Max Barrett said the sisters were regular visitors to Knock shrine and intended to go there with Ms Dardis’ adult daughter, Jennifer, and other family members, including Jennifer’s children, a toddler and nine-year-old boy.

Both sisters used free travel passes, but while Ms Curtis was entitled to do so because she has a disability, Joan Dardis was improperly travelling on a carer’s pass as the person she had cared for died some years previously, he said.

Jennifer Dardis got on the bus with her toddler resting on her shoulder and the driver agreed to let her settle the child before returning to pay the fares. When she did not return, he went to collect the fares.

The judge rejected the sisters’ evidence that Jennifer Dardis sent her nine-year-old son with a €50 note to pay the driver who refused to take money from a child. He accepted the driver’s evidence that it did not happen.

Bus Éireann argued that, given a “multiplicity of dishonesty offences” of which Joan Dardis was convicted in the past, and one public order offence against Ms Curtis, they had little or no reputation that could be sued upon in defamation, said the judge.

While one or more public order or dishonesty convictions of some years vintage does not necessarily deprive a person of a reputation sufficient to ground a later defamation action, none of the matters outlined involved publication of a defamatory statement about the sisters, he held.

He granted an application by Jeri Ward, for Bus Éireann, for costs against the sisters after being told defending the case had imposed considerable costs.

Counsel for the sisters said they were “impecunious” or without means.