The High Court ordered the lease for a partly built marina at Fahan, County Donegal, to remain in force subject to conditions, including rent payments, updated construction plans and engineering supervision. In a second judgment in the dispute, it also awarded the marina company damages for the State’s breach of statutory duty over an EU grant application.
Mr Justice William M. McKechnie delivered the judgment on 19 January 2012. The case was brought by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources against Figary Watersports Development Company Limited. A 2010 judgment had dealt with the main issues at trial and left damages and the terms of relief against forfeiture for further submissions.
The court ordered the company to pay €212,909.65 in rent arrears and interest up to the end of 2011, subject to set-off, and €13,938.12 for trespass. The trespass concerned about 0.484 hectares beyond the area in the lease. The court also directed the Minister to procure a further demise of that area to the company for the remaining lease term, on the existing lease terms with rent adjusted proportionately.
The lease would remain valid and subsisting if the company met conditions that included providing an updated schedule of works and detailed technical drawings, retaining suitably qualified consulting engineers to supervise completion, and applying €1.545 million of the damages award exclusively to completing the marina. The court also ordered the company to provide a €317,434.52 bond covering the agreed works.
The court did not award damages for the company’s claims over the dredged sand or performance bond. Although the earlier judgment found the Minister’s handling of the sand removal unreasonable, the company had not established a sufficient evidential basis for the claimed sand value, reputational harm or loss of earnings under that heading. The court also found no damages arose from the bond conditions.
On the Interreg IIIA grant issue, the court corrected the earlier judgment’s stated figure for special damages from €1.045 million to €1.545 million as a typographical error. It then awarded a further €500,000 in general damages for loss of earnings, despite reservations about the company’s financial reports, concluding that the breach had caused loss. The judgment states total damages on that issue of €2.045 million. The formal orders section, however, records judgment for €2.054 million, a discrepancy in the judgment text.
The court ordered set-off between the parties’ respective awards and granted liberty to apply.