Jody Nesbitt and Diana Nesbitt and Robin Swann and Naomi Long and Mike Nesbitt and Jim Shannon
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Master Bell |
| Judgment Date | 25 November 2022 |
| Neutral Citation | [2022] NIMaster 8 |
| Court | King's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 25 November 2022 |
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Neutral Citation : [2022] NIMaster 8
Ref:
2022NIMaster8
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
Delivered:
25/11/22
(subject to editorial corrections)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND
------
KING’S BENCH DIVISION
------
BETWEEN:
JODY NESBITT
and
DIANA NESBITT
Plaintiffs;
and
ROBIN SWANN
First Defendant
and
NAOMI LONG
Second Defendant
and
MIKE NESBITT
Third Defendant
and
JIM SHANNON
Fourth Defendant
Mr and Mrs Nesbitt appeared as Litigants in Person
Mr Fee represented the First and Second Defendants
Master Bell
Introduction
[1] The plaintiffs, Mr and Mrs Nesbitt, have commenced civil proceedings
seeking £100 million in damages (together with a variety of other reliefs) against four
prominent local politicians in respect of the implementation of the Coronavirus
Regulations in Northern Ireland. The first defendant, Robin Swann, is an MLA and
formerly the Health Minister in Northern Ireland. The second defendant, Naomi
Long, is an MLA and formerly the Justice Minister in Northern Ireland. The third
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defendant in this action, Mike Nesbitt, is an MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The fourth defendant, Jim Shannon, is a Member of Parliament at Westminster. (In
the pleadings, the order of the defendants differs from the order in which they
appear on the writ. In this judgment I shall refer to the defendants according to the
order in which they appear on the writ.)
[2] The plaintiffs act as personal litigants. The first and second defendants are
represented by Mr Fee, instructed by the Departmental Solicitor’s Office. I am
grateful to the parties for their helpful written and oral submissions.
[3] The application before the court is an application by the first and second
defendants, Robin Swann, and Naomi Long, (hereafter “the applicants”) under
Order 18 Rule 19 to strike out the action against them. The applicants submit that the
plaintiffs’ statement of claim discloses no reasonable cause of action, or is
scandalous, frivolous or vexatious, or is otherwise an abuse of the process of the
court.
[4] The original statement of claim is a brief document. It reads more like a
covering letter. Read on its own, it would be difficult to understand what the
plaintiffs’ case was. When read with the plaintiffs’ writ, their discovery document
dated 30 June 2021 (though no application for discovery was ever made to the court),
and their Affidavit of Truth (a ten-page document which the plaintiffs state will
serve as the statement of claim), an outline of their case is as follows:
(i) The plaintiffs state that it is their belief that the defendants have made
decisions without due care or attention to the facts. The defendants voted
for measures which destroyed 67 million lives over the last 18 months and
did not do any form of due diligence to validate this position. In the
plaintiffs’ view, this amounts to a tort against them.
(ii) When the Northern Ireland Executive passed lockdown measures and
measures in relation to vaccination, masks and sanitisation, they did so
without a proper scientific basis. Hence, they have done nothing to “justify
the destruction of our lives”.
(iii) The Northern Ireland Executive has failed to answer questions put to it by
the plaintiffs.
(iv) The plaintiffs are the sole and absolute owners of themselves, their bodies
and their estates and they renounce all presumptions of power, authority
by any government agency over their rights, life, liberty, freedom or
property. They have no desire to be the slave of any government agency.
(v) The plaintiffs are seeking remedies from the court for the removal of their
rights and freedoms, and for the torts committed against them. The torts
identified in their writ, which are alleged to have been perpetrated against
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Paul Murphy and Casey and Casey Solicitors and Mr Gerry Cunningham and Ms Edel Casey and Ms Blaithin Murray and The Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service
...characteristically well researched judgment delivered in recent weeks in the case of Jody Nesbitt and Diana Nesbitt v Robin Swann & Ors [2022] NIMaster 8, a case similarly involving personal litigant plaintiffs, Master Bell stated at para 65: “Personal litigants will be granted a certain am......