The High Court has awarded costs to Design Features Ltd after finding it was entitled to seek an interim injunction over access to a warehouse it leased at Finches Business Park on Dublin’s Long Mile Road. The court did not decide whether the access failures were deliberate or caused by a technical problem.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Twomey on 27 May 2020, dealt only with costs. The underlying proceedings had become moot after access was restored and outstanding rent was paid. The injunction had been granted ex parte on 23 April 2020 by Mr Justice Humphreys, prohibiting Goldstein Property ICAV, Goldstein Property Fund 1 and Quanta Capital Investments Ltd from denying Design Features access to the warehouse.
Design Features said Goldstein, which controlled the business park’s electronic gate, had deliberately removed its telephone numbers from the approved list. Goldstein said a technical fault caused the access problems. The court said it could not resolve that factual dispute in the costs application.
The judgment records that Design Features was unable to access the warehouse at various times from 7 to 24 April. After the injunction was granted, the problem was resolved on 24 April, just over an hour after an on-site meeting between representatives of the parties. The court said Ian Enright of Goldstein telephoned a contractor, who remedied what Goldstein described as a technical issue.
Design Features had sent solicitors’ letters on 10, 17 and 20 April complaining about access and warning it would seek an injunction. Goldstein replied that it was not denying access. The court noted that its reply to the detailed 20 April letter said it had nothing to add to its earlier responses. It also noted that Goldstein held a board meeting that day to approve a forfeiture notice, which was issued after Design Features had fallen behind on rent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The judge concluded that by 23 April Goldstein had given no substantive response to Design Features’ access concerns, regardless of the cause of the gate failures. He said the issue could and should have been resolved without court proceedings, and that the lack of a meaningful response left Design Features with no option but to seek the injunction to ensure access was not being denied.
The court therefore ordered that costs be awarded to Design Features. It did not determine whether Goldstein had intentionally removed the telephone numbers or whether the access failures were caused by an innocent technical fault.