The High Court has granted an interlocutory injunction ordering Markey Pubs Limited to give up vacant possession of O’Donoghues Pub on Suffolk Street, Dublin. The court said it would hear further submissions on whether to put a conditional stay on the order and on its terms.
Mr Justice Twomey said receivers Martin Ferris and Patrick McCoy had established a very strong case that Markey Pubs would not obtain a new tenancy in separate Circuit Court proceedings. The High Court was not deciding that tenancy application at trial; it assessed the strength of the claim for the purpose of the receivers’ application for an interim mandatory injunction.
Markey Pubs claimed entitlement to a new tenancy under the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980, relying on two leases said to have been assigned to it by San Benedetto Limited. The court found the 2013 lease could not support the claim: it named EOD Investments Limited as landlord, but EOD never owned the property. The court held that lease and the 2016 assignment of it were nullities.
The company also relied on a 2008 lease between the property owner, Thingmote Limited, and San Benedetto. That lease expired in April 2013. The court said there was no written assignment of it to Markey Pubs and that an overholding after expiry could not be assigned. It therefore found the receivers had a very strong case that Markey Pubs could not establish a renewal claim on either basis.
The judgment records the receivers’ submission that Markey Pubs had not paid the 2008 lease rent since its alleged tenancy began in January 2016, leaving arrears said to be €650,000. Markey Pubs acknowledged rent arrears in affidavit evidence and said it had spent €250,000 on improvements and fire safety, which it argued should be set off. The court did not resolve the arrears or set-off dispute at this interlocutory stage, noting that discovery was incomplete and witnesses had not been cross-examined.
The court said damages were unlikely to provide an adequate remedy to the receivers if possession were delayed, citing evidence of Markey Pubs’ financial position. It granted the injunction but proposed that a stay could allow Markey Pubs to remain if it paid rent of €239,200, the annual amount under the 2008 lease. The court did not propose making a stay conditional on payment of the alleged arrears. The judgment ends by inviting submissions on whether such a stay should be imposed; it does not state that a stay was made.