The High Court ruled that MMS Medical Limited remains bound by long-term leases over three units at Matthew Hill Business Park in Cork, and ordered the company to pay €239,884.07 in rent arrears, including interest, plus €426 for the cost of stamping a lease.
In a judgment delivered on 12 October 2018, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon found that the White and Yellow units were held under a 35-year lease expiring on 7 October 2027, and that the Red unit was held under a 35-year lease expiring on 16 February 2030. The judgment identifies Olaf Sorensen and Anna Sorensen as the plaintiffs and MMS Medical Limited as the defendant.
The dispute concerned the legal basis on which MMS occupied the Red and Yellow units. The company accepted the 1992 lease for the White unit, but argued that its occupation of the other units was under periodic tenancies which it had ended by giving one month’s notice in July 2012. The plaintiffs said the Red unit was covered by a 1995 lease agreement and that a 1998 variation added the Yellow unit to the 1992 lease.
The judge found that the parties had agreed a 35-year lease for the Red unit, at an annual rent of IR£10,000, and a 35-year letting of the Yellow premises on the White unit’s lease terms, at an additional annual rent of IR£7,000. She noted that MMS took possession, paid rent and agreed rent reviews. The court also found that negotiations for a proposed composite lease did not discharge the existing agreements, and that the 2012 notice did not end the tenancies.
The court said the notice was based on a monthly tenancy, but the rents were calculated annually. Even if periodic tenancies had existed, the judge found they would have been yearly tenancies and could not have been ended by one month’s notice. The court also rejected the defendants’ surrender argument: it had not allowed an amendment to the pleadings to include that plea, and the evidence did not show conduct by both parties unequivocally ending the tenancies.
The judgment records that the plaintiffs had sought declarations, rent arrears and other relief. The court’s stated orders were for payment of €239,884.07 in arrears, including interest, and €426 in stamping costs. It did not state an award of damages or make a separate order for specific performance.