The Court of Appeal has ruled that RGRE Grafton Limited owns all six stained glass works designed by Harry Clarke for Bewley’s Café on Grafton Street, Dublin. It allowed the company’s appeal over the two Swan Yard windows and rejected the café companies’ cross-appeal over the four Four Orders windows.
The judgment, delivered by Ms Justice Costello on 31 July 2024, overturns the High Court’s conclusion that the Swan Yard works were tenant’s fixtures owned by Bewley’s Limited under an assignment from Bewley’s Café Grafton Street Limited. The Court of Appeal held that the stained glass works were installed in the building’s external window openings in 1928 and formed part of the premises. The landlord’s successor in title, RGRE, owns them.
The appeal concerned six stained glass works made in 1928: four depicting classical architectural orders on the western wall and two overlooking Swan Yard. The High Court had found that the four western works were part of the building and belonged to the landlord, but that the Swan Yard works were tenant’s fixtures. Both sides appealed the parts of that decision against them.
The Court of Appeal said the historical evidence was incomplete, and the original arrangement had to be inferred from documents, physical evidence and later changes. It found the stained glass sashes were designed to open inwards, providing ventilation, and were made to weather the building. The court rejected the theory that the Swan Yard works had originally been installed behind clear glass in a double-window arrangement. It concluded that the landlord had proved, on the balance of probabilities, that all six works served as the building’s external windows when installed.
The judgment distinguished the windows’ original role from their later condition. By 1987, one Swan Yard opening had been blocked and its stained glass mounted in front of it. The court said that work had then lost the legal character of a window, but remained the landlord’s property as a fixture. The court did not decide whether the other Swan Yard work had also ceased to be a window by 1987; it said that point was unnecessary to resolve because neither work was expressly excluded from the 1987 sale of the property.
The court’s order allows the appeal concerning the Swan Yard works and dismisses the cross-appeal concerning the Four Orders works. On costs, the court gave a provisional view that RGRE should receive the costs of the appeal and trial, subject to any party seeking a different order within ten days. If disputed, written submissions were to be exchanged by 10 October 2024.