The hearing of the longest-ever action in the High Court ended yesterday after 281 days. Costs in the action will total millions of pounds.
Mr Justice Smyth reserved judgment in the action for compensation, which arose from a fire which destroyed the plant of plastics firm Superwood in Bray, Co Wicklow, on October 26th, 1987. The hearing opened in 1997.
Superwood sued Sun Alliance Insurance Group, Prudential Assurance Co Ltd, Church and General Insurance Co Ltd and Lloyd's.
The original High Court hearing had gone on for 116 days before Mr Justice Rory O'Hanlon. In his judgment in 1991, he rejected Superwood's claim, but that decision was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court appeal lasted 16 days in 1995.
Superwood won the appeal and the Supreme Court returned the case to the High Court to assess damages.
The compensation claim had been repudiated by the insurance companies on grounds of fraud or a claim exaggerated so excessively as to lead to the inference that it could not have been made honestly. The Supreme Court held that the repudiation by the insurers of the insurance policy was invalid.