A FATHER who wanted to film “every precious moment of the first minutes of his baby’s life” sued the midwife for €38,000 damages for interrupting his video of the birth.
Judge Joseph Mathews threw out John McAuley’s breach of contract claim against Iris Halbach and Mount Carmel Hospital when he heard the midwife had simply asked for a momentary stop in filming while she carried out emergency clearance of the baby’s airways.
Mr McAuley, Beatty Park, Celbridge, Co Kildare, and an address in Lithuania, told the Circuit Civil Court that, in December 2006, he filmed the labour of his partner Jurgita Jachimaviciute up to and during an emergency Caesarean delivery of their first child in the hospital.
Defence counsel Simon Mills was granted a direction to dismiss Mr McAuley’s claim after he agreed in cross-examination that all Ms Halbach had said was: “Maybe we could hang on a little with the filming until the baby is all recovered, if you don’t mind.”
Mr McAuley in evidence had described these words as justifying his claim that Ms Halbach had at that moment become “irrational and agitated”. Mr Mills submitted the claim by Mr McAuley and his partner was an abuse of process, frivolous and vexatious and disclosed no real cause of action.
Mr McAuley told the court he had also been asked by Ms Halbach to stop filming his baby in the nursery section of the hospital while she and two other nurses dealt with weight, gender and official identification records.
He said their private consultant, Gerry Rafferty, had told them months before the birth he saw no problem with the filming. He had also obtained permission from hospital staff.
Mr McAuley claimed the two interruptions constituted a breach of contract with the Mount Carmel Medical Group (South Dublin) Ltd, which trades as Mount Carmel Hospital, Braemor Road, Dublin.
He told Mr Mills he had recorded a 39-minute cassette of the birth but had five other 39-minute tapes with him.
While he had no filming contract in writing, he considered he had a legal agreement with the hospital. Mr Rafferty, against whom no legal proceedings had been taken, had informed him there could be no clinical reason to disallow filming.
Mr McAuley had claimed to have paid the hospital group €12,000 in respect of pre- and post-natal accommodation and services and to have paid Mr Rafferty €1,800 for his services. He and his partner had been given a perfectly healthy baby and he could not criticise the hospital in any way for its care of mother and child.
Judge Mathews, dismissing the claim with costs, said Mr McAuley’s evidence was entirely incapable of being considered as amounting to a breach of contract.