Court costs row 'disaster for all'

A 10-YEAR court battle rooted in a proposal to convert a milking parlour into a pet crematorium has ended with a Supreme Court decision yesterday ordering Wicklow County Council to pay most of the substantial costs of a bitter row between councillors and the county manager.

While three councillors – Thomas Cullen, Patrick Doran and Nicky Kelly – could not escape some liability for the “utterly wasteful and expensive course” they had initiated against the manager, their costs bill should be reduced somewhat, Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell also ruled.

The proceedings were a “disaster” and had led to “a very sorry situation for all concerned”, the judge added. The case “should act as a salutary lesson to those who insist on seeking to litigate matters of supposed principle, particularly when they seek to do so with other peoples’s money”.

He was giving the three-judge court’s judgment on costs issues arising from the unsuccessful challenge by the council to a July 2000 decision of the county manager granting planning permission for the conversion of a milking parlour for use as a pet crematorium at Oghill, Redcross.

The High Court decision upholding the manager’s permission was given in 2003 but the question of who should pay the costs then became subject of a bitter battle among councillors.

In 2004, the High Court ruled those liable for the costs of the action against the manager were Cllrs Nicky Kelly, formerly Independent but now Labour Party; Pat Doran, of Fianna Fáil; and Tommy Cullen, formerly Labour.

No costs order was made against Cllr Déirdre de Búrca, notwithstanding her apparent support for the position adopted by Cllr Kelly, the court directed.

The High Court found the proceedings instituted in the name of the council were at no time authorised by members of the council and in fact were begun on the instructions of the three members without authority from other members. Giving the Supreme Court judgment on the appeal by the three councillors against the costs orders, Mr Justice O’Donnell said it was difficult to credit, even now, “virtual civil war” had raged in Wicklow County Council in summer 2000 over the proposal by Andrew Byrne for the pet crematorium. The dispute had followed a long, tortuous and costly path to the Supreme Court, almost 10 years later and there was no doubt the proceedings and everything in relation to them “have been a disaster for all concerned”.

The length of the proceedings was “truly extraordinary” and the row over liability for costs amply illustrated the possibility that such satellite litigation could dwarf an original issue, he said.

The judge said the truth was, when the proceedings against the manager were issued, there was no resolution of any description authorising them. He ruled the High Court was entitled to distinguish between the position of the three and that of other councillors. However, given the High Court finding that the three had acted bona fide in the belief they were entitled to do so in their capacity as local representatives, the “very confused circumstances” of the case, including relating to the actions of other councillors, the quantum of the costs to be paid by them should be reduced.

The length of the proceedings was truly extraordinary and it seemed particularly harsh the three should have to pay the full costs, particularly as much time was taken up with other councillors seeking to absolve themselves from liability, he said.

He ruled the three should pay the manager’s costs on the basis of a two-day court hearing.

The net result was the council would have to bear the manager’s costs, other than the two days he could seek against the councillors, the judge ruled. The council would also have to pay the costs of other councillors who successfully argued they were not liable, plus the costs of Mr Byrne.