Damages of £100,000 were awarded to Michael E. Hanahoe and Co, a Dublin firm of solicitors, in the High Court yesterday when a judge held that a leak of information to the media about a Garda search of the firm's offices was a "wilful act" which had done damage to the firm.
Mr Justice Kinlen held that the deliberate leaking was intended to embarrass and distress the company. "It was an outrageous interference with their privacy and their constitutional rights."
He said that District Judge Gillian Hussey was correct in making orders granting search warrants to the gardai. The firm, which brought its action against Judge Hussey, the Garda Commissioner and the State, sought to quash Judge Hussey's orders.
Mr Justice Kinlen said he believed that, as a "matter of probability", the leak emanated from the gardai.
The search was undertaken by a special Garda unit as part of "Operation Pineapple". Gardai sought files relating to property transactions on behalf of John and Geraldine Gilligan, who are the subjects of Garda investigations into money-laundering and drug-trafficking.
The judge said: "The court is surprised at the attitude of the Commissioner and gardai to the investigation of this undoubted leak, which may well be a criminal offence."
At the hearing of the action earlier this year it was alleged that anonymous telephone calls had been received by the media and that a number of journalists were already outside the premises before gardai arrived.
The court accepted evidence from various senior solicitors, including former presidents of the Law Society and the Hanahoe brothers themselves, that the leaking of the information had done considerable, and probably irreparable, harm to the firm.
No spokesman for the company could be contacted to comment on the decision last night.
Court report: page 4