By Maeve Rowan
The High Court has ruled that Irish Life Assurance plc is entitled to judgment against Graham Quinn over €73,263.60 claimed under a guarantee connected with commercial premises at Irish Life Mall in Dublin 1.
Irish Life was landlord to L’Avenue Decleor Limited, which operated from premises at the Irish Life Centre. The amount claimed represented arrears of rent and service charges guaranteed by Mr Quinn.
There was no substantive dispute over the rent arrears. Mr Quinn challenged part of the service-charge claim, arguing that Irish Life could not sue for those sums until annual certificates signed by the landlord’s auditors had been provided for 2006 and 2007.
Ms Justice Dunne rejected that argument. She found that the lease expressly allowed the landlord to pursue unpaid advance service charges before the annual certificate was signed, provided the landlord could show that the advance payment demanded was fair and reasonable. The 2006 certificate had been supplied after the proceedings began, while the 2007 certificate remained outstanding.
Mr Quinn also alleged that Irish Life had failed in its obligations of good estate management. He claimed the departure of an anchor tenant, vacant retail units and poor common-area flooring and lighting had reduced customer footfall and damaged the tenant’s hair and beauty business.
He sought to rely on that alleged loss as an equitable set-off against Irish Life’s claim.
The court accepted in principle that an equitable set-off can arise where a cross-claim stems from the same contractual relationship. However, Dunne J found that Mr Quinn had produced little evidence supporting the claim, had not quantified any alleged loss and had apparently not raised the issue before the litigation.
The judge said the alleged estate-management claim could still be pursued separately. It did not provide a bona fide defence to Irish Life’s present claim.
Irish Life was therefore entitled to judgment for the amount claimed, subject to verification of the service-charge figures in light of the certified 2006 amount.