The Court of Appeal has ordered Olumide Smith to pay Cisco Systems Internetworking (Ireland) Limited’s costs of an appeal that was dismissed in January 2025. The amount is to be determined by a Costs Adjudicator if the parties cannot agree.
In a ruling delivered on 31 March 2025, Mr Justice Binchy said the court had dismissed Smith’s appeal on 21 January from a High Court judgment dated 13 November 2020. The High Court had dismissed his appeal against a decision by an Adjudication Officer, then appointed by the Equality Tribunal, on 18 February 2016.
The judge said Smith had advanced many grounds of appeal but was unsuccessful on all of them. At the end of the January judgment, the court had expressed a preliminary view that Cisco, having been entirely successful in the appeal, was entitled to its costs under section 169 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. Smith was invited to make written submissions within 14 days if he sought a different order.
Smith filed submissions on 4 February, and Cisco replied on 27 February. Binchy said Smith’s submissions largely argued that the substantive judgment was erroneous and discriminatory and raised grievances about the conduct of the proceedings and court rulings. On costs, the judge said Smith referred to the lodging of evidence from the lower courts and to what he described as an incomplete and selective chronology of relevant dates.
The ruling said Smith had asked the court to vacate its judgment and order a new trial before a different panel, but had not advanced reasons why the court should depart from its preliminary indication on costs. The court therefore ordered him to discharge all costs Cisco incurred in connection with the appeal. Costs are to be determined by the Costs Adjudicator in default of agreement.
Justices Whelan and Allen authorised Binchy to state that they agreed with the ruling. The March ruling addresses the costs order following the appeal’s dismissal; it does not reconsider the substantive judgment.