The High Court has refused applications by An Bord Pleanála and a notice party for partial costs after a planning judicial review, ruling that the applicant’s conduct did not justify an exception to the usual rule that each side bears its own costs.
The costs judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Miriam O’Regan on 6 May 2021, followed an earlier judgment in which the court ruled against Angela Pearse, who had sought to quash a decision by An Bord Pleanála dated 23 March 2014. The costs hearing concerned only the part of the case addressing whether quarrying had taken place on the site before 1964.
An Bord Pleanála and the second named notice party sought partial costs under section 50B(3) of the Planning and Development Act. They argued that pursuing the claim about pre-1964 development wasted considerable time before it was abandoned.
The applicant had argued that An Bord Pleanála acted irrationally by failing to determine that there had been no quarrying on the site before 1964. During the hearing, she conceded that argument after the court raised difficulties arising from an earlier judicial review. In that earlier case, the High Court accepted that there was sufficient information for Westmeath County Council to determine that there had been pre-1964 use. An appeal from that decision was later withdrawn.
Justice O’Regan distinguished the applicant’s conduct from cases cited by the parties, which involved proceedings being prolonged without an intention to continue or a lengthy delay before a concession. The applicant had obtained leave to bring the judicial review on substantial grounds and pursued a ground included in her statement of grounds. The judge accepted that her pragmatic concession helped conclude the case sooner than anticipated.
The case had been listed for four days but concluded in three. The court ordered that each party bear its own costs. It did not award costs to the applicants seeking them.