The High Court has granted Emo Oil Limited an interlocutory injunction restraining Oil Rig Supplies Limited from trespassing at a retail service station at Lock Quay, Clare Street, Limerick. The court stayed the order on conditions requiring the defendant to make monthly payments and pay a lump sum. If it defaults on either condition, the plaintiff may apply to lift the stay, and the injunction is intended to take immediate effect.
Mr Justice McDermott delivered judgment on 18 August 2017. The application concerned the defendant’s continued occupation of the premises after the plaintiff said its sublease had expired and that it had required the defendant to leave. The defendant disputed the plaintiff’s account of the parties’ arrangements and claimed it had a right to a new tenancy under landlord and tenant legislation. It had also begun proceedings for a new tenancy in the Circuit Court in Limerick.
The plaintiff said it remained liable for rent to its landlord while the defendant occupied and traded from the site without paying it since August 2016. The defendant disputed the account of its occupation and payments. The judge noted conflicts in the affidavits and said much of the dispute would require oral evidence at trial.
The court found that the plaintiff had raised a fair, bona fide issue to be tried. It did not determine the disputed facts or finally decide whether the defendant had a right to remain. The judge also declined to treat the defendant’s proposed defences as unstateable at this stage, despite identifying significant difficulties with them.
The judge was not satisfied that damages would adequately compensate the plaintiff for its continuing liability to the landlord and the harm to its business relationship. He considered the case finely balanced, including the consequences for the defendant’s business and its ten employees if the injunction took effect. The order was therefore stayed on conditions intended to reduce the risk of injustice while the underlying disputes remain unresolved.
The defendant must pay €4,737.96 per month from 1 September 2017, equivalent to the rent the plaintiff paid its landlord, and €61,593.48 to the plaintiff within two months of the judgment. The judgment said that payment of the lump sum would in any event be necessary if the defendant were to establish its new-tenancy claim in the Circuit Court, but that any default in that proceeding was not for the High Court to decide.