The High Court has ordered BVK Highstreet Retail Liffey Property Limited to pay half the costs incurred by Bazsont Limited, trading as Starbucks (Liffey Valley), in its discovery appeal and in the proceedings below.
In a costs ruling delivered on 7 April 2022, Mr Justice Woulfe said the appellant had succeeded in obtaining discovery of one category of documents, with amended wording, but had failed to obtain a second category. He considered the unsuccessful argument over category 4 unmeritorious and said it had materially increased the appeal hearing’s costs because the two categories were separate.
The costs application followed a High Court judgment on 10 December 2021 that allowed the appeal in part. It ordered discovery of category 3, subject to revised wording, and refused category 4 because those documents did not relate to a matter in question in the action.
The dispute arises from the parties’ landlord and tenant relationship concerning Unit 21 at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. Bazsont is seeking a new tenancy under the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980. The costs ruling does not decide that underlying claim.
The discovery motion had first gone before the County Registrar, who refused categories 3 and 4 and allowed category 6 in terms partly matching wording previously offered by the respondent. The Circuit Court dismissed Bazsont’s appeal and affirmed that order. Bazsont then appealed to the High Court in relation to categories 3 and 4.
The respondent opposed an immediate award of the full costs sought. It argued that costs should be costs in the cause, or reserved until the practical value of the category 3 discovery was known. Alternatively, it said any award should be limited to part of the High Court costs, with the lower-court costs orders vacated, and execution stayed pending the proceedings. It also argued that the appellant’s success on category 3 might prove pyrrhic and that the respondent had prevailed on category 4 and largely on category 6 wording.
Justice Woulfe ordered the respondent to pay one half of Bazsont’s High Court appeal costs and one half of its costs in the Court below. The costs are to be adjudicated by the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators if the parties do not agree. He declined to stay execution of the costs orders.