A 68-year-old woman who sued a religious order over the adoption of her four-month-old son 46 years ago has lost her case at the Court of Appeal.
The woman, who was described by the court as having had "an appalling life" in a Magdalene Laundry, searched for son in later years but found he had died in 2004.
The appeal court upheld a High Court decision to dismiss her claim against the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul on grounds it was statute barred or out of time.
The court said the case would, in any event, have been struck out for inordinate and inexcusable delay in bringing the case.
Her case against a second religious order and the HSE is still pending.
The woman claimed she was raped in 1968 and became pregnant at the age of 21 before being sent to St Patrick's mother and baby home on the Navan Road, Dublin.
She had to give the baby up for adoption as she was also a resident/worker in the Magdalene Laundry in Drumcondra, Dublin.
She said she was warned by a nun there that if she did not sign the adoption papers she would be "put out on the street".
The Court of Appeal said she had limited insight into how appalling her life was with no freedom; that she was physically abused, frightened and forced to work very hard for no pay.
In 2008, with the assistance of one of her other children, she set about trying to locate her adopted son, but discovered he had died in 2004.
She sued in 2013 claiming duress, illegality and fraud over the adoption.
She claimed while those involved in the adoption process impliedly represented to her that what was being done was routine that, when viewed objectively, they ought to have realised the practice was totally irregular and unlawful.
It was claimed that because there was a breach of a six-month statutory period before an adoption can be made, that the clock stopped running on the Statute of Limitations for bringing the legal action.
She had sued the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, who she said managed St Patrick's, along with the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, who operated the Magdalene Laundry, along with the HSE as successor to the original health authority for Dublin.
They denied her claims.
The Daughters of Charity, which said it was not it but the health authority that managed St Patrick's, argued that because of a 44-year delay in bringing the claim, important witnesses and information relating to the events of 1969 when the adoption took place were no longer available.
The case, it was argued, should be dismissed because of delay.
After the High Court dismissed the claim in relation to the Daughters of Charity, the woman appealed to a three-judge Court of Appeal which today unanimously dismissed her claim, also on grounds that it was statute-barred.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said the claim against the Daughters was doomed to fail and it was unnecessary to consider the issue of delay.
The judge was prepared to allow new evidence, which had been found after the High Court decision, to be admitted as part of the appeal.
This was a letter, which had been found in a bundle of documents left unattended in a solicitor's writing room in the Four Courts and later sent on to the woman's solicitor.
It was dated 26 September 1969, and sent by St Louise Adoption Society to the sister in charge of St Patrick's Home and stated the woman's son had been discharged to the care of a named couple "with a view to adoption".
Mr Justice Hogan said, taken at face value, the letter would indeed tend to support the woman's contention that the Daughters of Charity were actively involved in the adoption process even after she had left St Patrick's.
However, he said, the High Court had already proceeded on that presumption (that the Daughters were involved) in making its decision.
In this context, the letter "adds nothing new" from the woman's perspective as it would simply help prove a fact which the courts have already assumed in her favour for the purpose of deciding whether the case was statute-barred, he said.
