A round-up of today's law news stories in brief
Point Village dispute between Dunnes Stores and Crosbie nears settlement
A dispute between Dunnes Stores and developer Harry Crosbie over a €46 million deal related to the Point Village development in Dublin’s docklands is on the verge of settlement, it has been indicated to the Commercial Court.
After talks between the sides, Mr Justice Frank Clarke agreed yesterday afternoon to a request from Michael Cush SC, for Dunnes, to adjourn the case to today to allow an agreement between the sides to be finalised.
The case was due to open at 11am yesterday.
Both Margaret Heffernan of Dunnes and Mr Crosbie were in court.
The case arises from the Point Village agreement of February 27th, 2008, under which Dunnes, whose €23 million flagship store in the Point Village is under construction, agreed it would pay €46 million plus VAT for certain works.
Dunnes Stores claims it is entitled to rescind that agreement due to the alleged abandonment of the defendant’s plans to build a 102m “Watchtower” and the “U2 Experience”.
Two women jailed for theft and assault
A judge has jailed two young women for four months after noting that they were not one bit sorry for assaulting a woman on her way home from work and stealing her handbag.
Aisling Stewart (19) and Jacqueline O’Grady (21), both of Ballybane, Galway, had pleaded guilty before Galway District Court in May to assaulting a woman at Ballybane Road last August while stealing her handbag.
They had been given time to pay €500 compensation each to the victim to avoid prison and to do community service work instead, but they arrived into court yesterday with no money.
When Judge Mary Fahy put it to Stewart that she was not one bit sorry, she agreed, saying “No”, and O’Grady nodded in agreement.
Girl granted €10,000 damages over scar
A seven-year-old girl has been awarded €10,000 damages over a small scar from an injury sustained at a shopping centre when she was three.
Circuit Court president Mr Justice Matthew Deery was told in the Circuit Civil Court that Jasmine D’Arcy Sweeney had been hit on her right eyebrow by a store detective’s walkie-talkie during a pre-Christmas shopping trip.
Her mother Tanya D’Arcy told the court in an affidavit that the security man had not been watching where he was going in the Liffey Valley mall on December 7th, 2006. Her daughter had been knocked to the ground and trampled on by the security man.
Judge Deery heard Jasmine, Athy, Co Kildare, had since been left with a faint 1cm scar and a slight degree of hair loss on her eyebrow. The court heard it was likely to be unnoticeable at conversation distance in adulthood.
Judge Deery approved a €10,000 settlement to Jasmine by Chubb Ireland Ltd, Stillorgan Industrial Park, Dublin.