Mother (84) and daughter in court over post office savings book

An eighty-four-year-old woman brought her daughter to court over claims she caused stress and anxiety to her after she failed to return her post office savings book.
Nora Smyth (84) of Kilkelly, Co Mayo claimed damages for stress and anxiety caused by her daughter, Josephine McIntyre of Curry, Co Sligo after she failed to return her post office book and withdrew money from her Bank of Ireland account.
Last week’s sitting of Castlebar Circuit Civil Court heard that the proceedings were brought by Nora Smyth (84) of Kilkelly, Co Mayo, against her daughter Josephine McIntyre after she failed to return her mother’s medical card and post office book.
Mrs McIntyre was a joint holder of the savings book but failed to return it to her mother after she spent eleven weeks recovering in hospital.
Judge Rory McCabe was informed that Mrs McIntyre had brought her mother to medical appointments for the last number of years but their relationship became strained after her release from hospital earlier this year.
Mrs McIntyre said in court that her mother phoned to give out to her and told her it was her duty to take care of her and also claimed ‘someone else’ was driving her mother to take the case. The court heard that €6,000 was taken from the post office account by Mrs McIntyre in two €3,000 withdrawals on March 3 and 4, 2017, and a total of €12,220 was withdrawn from Mrs Smyth’s Bank of Ireland account over a period of time.
In her evidence, Mrs Smyth denied giving permission to withdraw the money and claimed that she has been left without money. Mrs McIntyre said she took the €6,000 to buy a mobility scooter for her mother and her mother knew about this.
With regard to the withdrawal of money from her Bank of Ireland account, Mrs McIntyre said her mother got worried after hearing a story about dormant bank accounts on The Tommy Marren Show on Mid West Radio.
She said her mother agreed for her to take the money out of her Bank of Ireland account and put it in her post office account. She did this by using a pass card at ATM machines.
The court was informed that the €6,000 was returned to the post office account on April 25 and all bar €70 of the money withdrawn from the Bank of Ireland account was in the post office account in 2015.
Mrs McIntyre said if she wanted to take her mother’s money she would have taken it and not put it in the post office account as she had requested.
In his ruling, Judge McCabe described the reported loss of €70 to the plaintiff as ‘trivial’ and there appeared to be a misunderstanding on how the money should be managed. Judge McCabe ruled that it would not be in the interest of justice to make a ruling against Mrs McIntyre and struck out the proceedings.