Case law update -  6 November

Recent superior court cases cover construction law, criminal law, family law, immigration, injunctions, insurance law, intellectual property, landlord and tenant, planning and development, practice and procedure, social welfare and more.

 

Construction Law

Connaughton, Albert v Timber Frame Projects Limited t/a Timber Frame Ireland

1/9/2025 No. 2024 644 MCA [2025] IEHC 469

Construction law - Dispute - Construction contract - Termination - Damages claim - Adjudicator's decision - Enforcement application - Jurisdiction - S. 6(1) of the Construction Contracts Act 2013 - Right to refer a dispute to statutory adjudication is confined to circumstances where the dispute relates to a payment which is provided for under a construction contract - Whether adjudication extends to a repudiatory breach of the construction contract - Court finds the adjudicator did not have jurisdiction under the Act to entertain the claim and that the adjudicator’s decision is a nullity and cannot be the subject of an enforcement order - Reliefs refused

 

Criminal Law

People (DPP) v K (B)

14/7/2025 No. 8/2025 [2025] IECA 179

Criminal law - Conviction - Offences of sexual assault and child neglect - Appellant appealing against conviction - Admissibility of evidence - Clinical psychologist - Risk and safeguarding assessment - Inculpatory statements made by the appellant - Evidence - Voluntariness of confession - Whether inculpatory statements made under potentially coercive conditions - Whether evidence was admissible - Fair procedures - Appeal allowed

K (aged out child) v DPP

1/9/2025 No. 2024 232 JR [2025] IEHC 470

Criminal law - Judicial review - Offence of assault causing harm - application to restrain a criminal prosecution - Applicant had been a "child" within the meaning of the Children Act 2001 at the time of the alleged offences - Applicant "aged out" prior to the hearing and determination of the criminal prosecution - Criminal prosecution has been stayed pending the determination of these judicial review proceedings - Applicant contends that there has been culpable prosecutorial delay - Prejudice - Applicant suggests that any detention order imposed would have run concurrently with the existing detention orders with the result that he would serve no additional time in custody - Whether the balance of justice lies in allowing the criminal prosecution to proceed - Court finds the judicial review proceedings must be dismissed in their entirety

People (DPP) v Adeagbo, Mohamed

29/7/2025 No. 299/2024 [2025] IECA 180

Criminal law - Sentencing - Offences of possession of a large quantity of cocaine and cannabis for sale or supply and money laundering - Respondent received a fully suspended sentence - Appellant seeks review of the sentence on the grounds of undue leniency - Excessive weight placing on the mitigating factors - Facts of the case were not sufficiently exceptional to justify the award of an entirely suspended sentence - Ultimate sentence failed to adequately reflect the principles of specific and general deterrence - Participation in a rehabilitation programme - Positive probation reports - Appeal dismissed

People (DPP) v Dowling, Dan

30/7/2025 No. 42/2023 [2025] IECA 186

Criminal law - Trespass - Restricted area - Appellant and a co-accused indicted on one count of criminal damage to US military aircraft at Shannon airport and one count of trespass - S. 11 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 - Appellant and co-accused were each found not guilty on the count of criminal damage and guilty on the count of trespass - Appellant appealing against conviction on the ground that the trial judge erred in failing to direct the jury on the defence of 'necessity' in relation to the s. 11 trespass offence - Appeal dismissed

 

Family Law

G (J) v P (M), in the matter of The Child Abduction and Enforcement of Custody Orders Act 1991, in the matter of The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and in the matter of L G, a minor

25/8/2025 No. 2025/146 [2025] IECA 184

Family law - Child - Move to Brazil - Parental dispute - Wrongful removal - Habitual residence - Application of the father (the applicant) to return the child to Brazil - Child's habitual residence at the date of the retention of the child in the State was Ireland - Application refused - Applicant appealing the decision - Whether the child and his mother became integrated into Brazilian society - Language barrier - Social isolation - Integration test - Court finds the trial judge did not err in his treatment of uncontroverted evidence -  Child was not wrongfully retained in the State on because the child's habitual residence was (and remains) Ireland - Appeal dismissed

 

Immigration

Dashevsky, Alexander v International Protection Accommodation Services, Minister for Justice, and ors

5/8/2025 No. 2024 846 JR [2025] IEHC 478

Immigration - Judicial review application - Ukrainian national - International protection - Accommodation services - Entitlement - Eligibility - Applicant granted subsidiary protection but not refugee status - Applicant seeking continued accommodation from the authorities - Applicant submits that because he had appealed the refusal of a declaration of refugee status he is entitled to be regarded as being an applicant for international protection within the relevant Irish regulations - European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 230/2018) - Expulsion from State-provided accommodation - Repeated misbehaviour and breach of house rules - Withdrawal of accommodation provided - Mootness - Reliefs refused

 

Injunctions

Choice Broadcasting Ltd v Bauer Audio Ireland Ltd

30/7/2025 No. 2025 3467 P [2025] IEHC 462

Injunctions - Interlocutory injunction - Extension - Intellectual property - Registered trademark - Branding - Passing off - Plaintiff's application for an interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendant from using the initials "GHR" in its logo or broadcasting radio station until the trial of action - Whether the use of the words Greatest Hits Radio covered GHR and amounted to passing off or trademark infringement - Whether the similarity of names would give rise to confusion - Balance of justice - Undertaking as to damages - Application to extend the injunction refused

 

Insurance Law

WWTAI Airopco II DAC and WWTAI Airopco 1 Bermuda Ltd v Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers (Europe) SAS and ors

7/8/2025 No. 2024 3690 P [2025] IEHC 452

Insurance law - Aviation - Aircraft leasing - Insurance - Russian invasion of Ukraine - Insurance policies - Loss of aircraft and engines - Claims - Indemnity - Damages - Applications by the defendants for a stay of the proceedings pending the determination of proceedings before the High Court of England and Wales - Overlapping issues with the same equipment and losses - Order sought striking out the proceedings on the grounds that they disclose no reasonable cause of action, and/or are bound to fail - Jurisdiction clause - Whether all issues would be fully determined in the High Court of England and Wales - Whether the claims were premature or bound to fail - Applications refused

 

Intellectual Property

Sky UK Limited v Dunbar, David

20/8/2025 No. 2025 2704 P [2025] IEHC 465

Intellectual property - TV channels - Copyright infringement - Plaintiff the sole owner of the broadcast copyright in the content transmitted by the plaintiff in the UK and Ireland - Plaintiff alleges the defendant has provided an internet protocol television (IPTV) service to customers including live streams of all of the channels included in plaintiff's television subscription services in Ireland and the UK - Defendant accepts the substance of these allegations - Plaintiff sought Anton Piller and Mareva relief - Non-compliance - Contempt of court - Defendant failed to comply with Anton Piller search - Destruction of evidence - Breach of Mareva injunction - Dissipation of assets - Provision of incomplete financial information - Damages awarded to the plaintiff in the sum of €480,000 - Court imposed a fine of €30,000 on the defendant as punishment for contempt of court

 

Landlord and Tenant

Friedman, Lucy v Residential Tenancies Board, Gillian Draper, and ors; and Attorney General (notice party)

11/8/2025 No. 2024 434 MCA [2025] IEHC 477

Landlord and tenant - Tenant - Complaint - Tenancy tribunal - Determination order - Service by post - Whether the appellant's appeal was out of time - Respondent seeking to strike out the appellant's appeal -  Commencement of appeal period - Whether it is the date the order is posted or when it is deemed received in the ordinary course of post - Statutory interpretation - Constitutional right to litigate - Application refused

 

Planning and Development

Murray, Chris and Rose Murray v Meath County Council

5/8/2025 Nos. 2025/1; 2025/2 [2025] IECA 164

Planning and development - Unauthorised development - Dwelling house - Planning application refused - Plaintiffs built the house in breach of the planning laws - Orders for demolition - Plaintiffs seeking to set aside prior court orders relating to the demolition of an unauthorised development - High Court decision dismissing action as frivolous and vexatious and an attempt to re-litigate issues already decided - Plaintiffs appealing High Court decision - "New Evidence" - Court finds no merit in the appeal - Abuse of process - Attempt to challenge prior judicial decisions - High Court orders affirmed - Appeal dismissed on all grounds

 

Practice and Procedure

Harford, Cillian v Commissioner of An Garda Síochána

26/8/2025 No 2025 1278 JR [2025] IEHC 476

Practice and procedure - Judicial review - Public order offence - Applicant observing a large fire on the Luas line - Garda cordon - Applicant entered the cordon to retrieve his bicycle - Arrest - Public order offence - Applicant seeking leave to apply for judicial review against the Commissioner of an Garda Síochána - Applicant seeking various reliefs including violation of personal rights - Compensation for emotional distress as a result of the injustice of unlawful detention and the making of frivolous criminal accusations - Court finds the applicant failed to meet the test for obtaining leave to apply for judicial review - Leave to apply for judicial review refused

Browne, Colum v Registrar General of Fishing Boats, Minister for Agriculture, Ireland and Attorney General

9/9/2025 No. 2017 11289 P [2025] IEHC 486

Practice and procedure - Strike out application - Fishing vessel - Capacity assignment note - Allocation of fishing capacity - Re-measurement and re-classification of vessel - Removal from previous category - Impact on fishing entitlements - Challenge - Compliance with law including EU law - Procedural time-limits - Absence of new or exceptional circumstances - Whether the proceedings are an attempt to re-litigate matters already decided - Court makes order striking out the proceedings pursuant to o. 19, r. 28(1) of the RSC

 

Social Welfare

N (A) v Minister for Social Protection, Social Welfare Appeals Office, and ors

22/8/2025 No. 2024 856 JR [2025] IEHC 479

Social welfare - Carer's allowance - Right of residence - Applicant a Romanian national who came to reside in the state for the purpose of providing care to her two grandsons who had serious special needs - Application for allowance refused on the basis that she was not habitually resident in the State when she applied - Challenge to the decision - Applicant alleges she is a worker for the purposes of EU law - Directive 2004/38/EC - Right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States - Whether the applicant had a right to reside in the State - Eligibility criteria - Regulation 6(3)(a)(i) of the 2015 Regulations - Whether the appeals officer applied the correct test - Reliefs sought by the applicant refused

 

Return to LawWatch 

Coverage: All reserved written judgments published by the Courts Service are indexed on the Library Catalogue where they can be searched by party name, judge, subject, keyword and other filters. Members may log in to the catalogue with their solicitor number and library PIN, available by emailing libraryenquire@lawsociety.ie