The Court of Appeal has ordered Paul O’Shea to pay Danske Bank A/S trading as Danske Bank’s costs after dismissing his appeal, with the amount to be adjudicated if the parties cannot agree. It also stayed execution of the costs order under conditions tied to a possible application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Power on 15 July 2020, deals with the final form of the order and costs following the court’s earlier decision. On 11 May 2020, the Court of Appeal dismissed O’Shea’s appeal and affirmed a High Court decision of 21 February 2019. That High Court decision had dismissed his application to show cause under section 16 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988, as amended.
The bank proposed an order dismissing the appeal, affirming the High Court order and awarding it costs. O’Shea disagreed with the proposed order and opposed costs. In an email copied to the Court of Appeal Office, he said he intended to appeal to the Supreme Court and argued that costs should wait until that matter was resolved.
Justice Power said the court could decide costs despite O’Shea’s stated intention to appeal. She applied the general rule that costs follow the event and said the court’s earlier findings gave no reason to depart from it. The Court of Appeal had agreed with the High Court and rejected all grounds of O’Shea’s appeal; the bank was therefore entirely successful in defending the appeal.
The court ordered that the appeal be dismissed and the High Court order affirmed. It awarded costs to the bank, with those costs to be adjudicated in default of agreement. The court did not set a sum in this judgment.
The costs order’s execution is stayed pending lodgment, within the time allowed by the rules, of an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. The judgment specifies 21 days from perfection of the order. If an application is lodged, the stay continues until the Supreme Court decides whether to grant leave. If leave is granted, the stay continues until the Supreme Court finally determines the appeal or makes another order in the meantime.