Lawyers for a terminally ill woman who has taken legal action over the alleged misreading of her cervical smear tests have told the High Court she needs more time to have experts carry out further testing.
Ruth Morrissey and her husband Paul are suing over cervical smears taken under the CervicalCheck screening programme in 2009 and 2012.
The action is against the Health Service Executive and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Ireland which has offices at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin, and Medlab Pathology, Sandyford Business Park, Dublin.
The Morrisseys, of Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick, claim there was a failure to correctly interpret, report and diagnose smear samples taken in 2009 and 2012.
They allege a situation developed where Ms Morrissey's cancer spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2014.
The case opened in July and is due to resume next Tuesday before Mr Justice Kevin Cross.
However, today her lawyers applied for an adjournment saying they need time to engage experts to carry out new and further tests.
Senior Counsel Jeremy Maher told the court that Ms Morrissey's slides were the subject of an audit after it was discovered in 2014 that she had cervical cancer.
During that audit markers were placed on the slides.
In preparing its defence to the case, he said the laboratories were able to examine the slides without these markers.
Ms Morrissey's side now needed an opportunity to do the same so-called "blind test", in order to properly present her case, he said.
Mr Maher said another significant development was the fact that one of the laboratories had changed the nature of its defence and was now saying it would rely on the testing of tissue samples to say Ms Morrissey's cancer was not caused by or related to the evidence shown on the smear tests in 2009 and 2012.
Mr Maher said this represented a significant development in terms of their ability to counter those claims and they would need more time to engage experts on that issue.
He said the laboratories would not be prejudiced by an adjournment and the only person to suffer would be the plaintiff who was a terminally ill woman.
If the case was not adjourned it would be an "opportunity for the defendants to ambush" his client, he said.
Lawyers for the laboratories objected to the application being made before Mr Justice Anthony Barr.
Senior Counsel Emily Egan said it should be made before Mr Justice Cross who had an in-depth knowledge of the case having heard some of the evidence and having been involved in its management from the beginning.
Barrister Imogen McGrath also told the court the plaintiffs had possession of the 2012 slides for longer than the defendants and had only recently made the request to re-test them, days before the case was due to resume, despite knowing for some time the type of testing carried out for the defence.
Mr Justice Barr said he made no criticism of Ms Morrissey's lawyers for making the application because they were trying to avoid incurring costs of witnesses travelling next week.
However he said once a High Court judge has embarked upon the hearing of a case, another judge could not interfere with the running of that case. He said he did not have the jurisdiction or authority to interfere in how that case should proceed.
While not refusing the application, he adjourned it to Tuesday next when the application can be made before Judge Cross.
At an earlier hearing the court was told Ms Morrissey's 2009 smear was tested by the US laboratory Quest diagnostics and her 2012 smear was tested by the Medlab Dublin laboratory.
She alleges the smears had been incorrectly and negligently reported.
Mr Maher said the results of the reviews of the two tests were carried out and conveyed to Ms Morrissey's treating gynaecologist in 2016 but she had not been given the review results until May 2018 when she already had a cervical cancer recurrence.
She had also been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
He said experts would say if the cervical smear of 2009 had been correctly reported she would have been referred for a colposcopy, which would have disclosed pre-cancerous cells and she may not have developed cervical cancer in 2014 which had recurred this year.
Mr Maher said Ms Morrissey should never have developed cancer in 2014 or have had a recurrence and she was being deprived of seeing her daughter grow up and of an opportunity to live the life she had hoped.
