The High Court has ordered Paul Coyle and Margaret Coyle to obtain its permission before bringing further proceedings within the scope of Isaac Wunder orders sought by Decobake Ltd’s liquidator and Dublin City Council. The court also barred the couple from communicating directly with named council employees, directing that future communications to the council go through its solicitor.
Mr Justice Cregan delivered the judgment on 16 March 2023. He said the orders were justified by the history of litigation arising from the liquidation and by the prospect of further applications that would abuse court process if no restriction were imposed. He said the orders would operate as a filter and would not prevent the couple from bringing proceedings altogether.
Decobake, a baking-products business that operated from premises including Bachelors Walk in Dublin, was wound up in July 2017 after failing to pay local authority rates. Paul and Margaret Coyle, who had been company directors, opposed the winding-up petition. The judgment records that their counsel accepted the rates were due and unpaid, and that Mr Coyle acknowledged in an affidavit that the company should have paid them.
The couple’s appeal against the winding-up order was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2019. Later applications by Mr Coyle to remove the liquidator and annul the winding up were dismissed by the High Court in 2020; the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal in 2022. The Supreme Court refused leave to appeal in January 2023. The judgment also recounts a series of other unsuccessful applications and costs orders, which it says remain unpaid.
The liquidator and the council supported their applications with affidavit evidence about repeated litigation, allegations made against them and their representatives, and the costs and disruption they said resulted. Mr Coyle’s response did not adequately address those matters, the judge found. Mr Coyle did not attend the February 2023 hearing, but the judge considered his affidavits and written submissions. He refused Mr Coyle’s request for a lengthy adjournment, concluding that the matter had already been substantially delayed.
The judgment says Isaac Wunder orders must be used sparingly, balancing access to the courts against protection from abusive proceedings and unnecessary expense. Applying those principles, Mr Justice Cregan granted both applications and extended the orders to Mrs Coyle, reasoning that otherwise proceedings might be brought in her name. The orders concern proceedings and communications covered by the applications; the judgment states that they do not bar litigation altogether.