The High Court has dismissed Enoch Burke’s application to set aside earlier judgments and orders in proceedings brought by the Board of Management of Wilson’s Hospital School, and ordered him to pay the board’s costs of the application.
In a judgment delivered on 26 August 2024, Mr Justice Mark Sanfey said the costs would be adjudicated if the parties could not agree. The ruling dealt with the costs of Burke’s application, which the court had refused in a judgment delivered on 19 July 2024.
That earlier application, made on 28 June 2024, sought to set aside a judgment delivered by Mr Justice Owens on 19 May 2023 and an order made on 17 July 2023. Justice Sanfey had indicated that the school board appeared entitled to its costs, while allowing the parties to make written submissions if they sought a different costs order.
Burke made a submission arguing that no costs order should be made. He said an exceptional issue of constitutional justice arose and argued that the court should have addressed the legality of a principal’s demand when considering whether his suspension was unlawful. He also said the July judgment wrongly stated that he had chosen not to pursue his claim that his constitutional rights were breached.
The board made no written submission on costs.
Justice Sanfey said Burke’s costs arguments amounted to an attempt to reargue the application and raise grounds that had already been rejected. He found nothing in the submission to show that it was reasonable for Burke to raise or pursue the issues in the application.
The judge said the application was inappropriate and should not have been made. As the board had been entirely successful in defending it, the court ordered Burke to pay its costs. The judgment did not determine a new challenge to the underlying suspension; it addressed the costs following the refusal of the application to set aside the earlier judgment and order.