The High Court awarded two bookmakers a total of €89,860 in damages after finding that Dundalk Racing (1999) Ltd had breached rules governing bookmakers’ pitches at Dundalk Stadium. Mr Justice Hogan refused Patrick O’Hare’s request for an order restoring his original pitch, holding that the delay made that relief inappropriate.
The judgment, delivered on 30 January 2015, dealt with damages and mitigation following an earlier ruling that the Racecourse Executives’ Seniority and Pitch Rules formed a binding contract. In that earlier decision, the court found Dundalk had breached the rules by seeking an €8,000 contribution from established seniority holders who wanted to trade at the stadium after it reopened in 2007.
O’Hare and Hughes each held an October 1945 seniority. The court said the 2007 pitch allocation was not the redraw required by the rules. Their claims included lost profits and the capital value of their pitches. Hogan assessed each pitch at €35,000, while reducing Hughes’s pitch damages by 20% because of his participation in an illegal boycott identified in the earlier proceedings.
The court allowed both men their full proven losses for the first year, from August 2007 to August 2008, and reduced subsequent losses by 80% to reflect their failure to mitigate by taking another pitch. Hogan said the February 2008 offer of additional pitches for €863 came after 14 pitches had already been allocated, meaning those available would have been decidedly inferior to the plaintiffs’ original pitches.
For O’Hare’s lost profits, the judge used a 6% gross profit margin and allowed €13,376. Added to the €35,000 pitch valuation, this brought his total award to €48,376. Hughes was allowed €13,484 in lost profits after the 80% mitigation reduction and a further 20% reduction for his participation in the boycott. With €28,000 for his pitch, his total award was €41,484.
O’Hare’s separate request for an injunction restoring his original pitch was refused. The pitch had been allocated to another bookmaker in 2007; although proceedings began in April 2008, no injunction application was made then, and the case was not heard until July 2014. The judge said the current holder, who was not a party to the proceedings, had presumably traded from the pitch and organised their affairs around it. He concluded that restoring O’Hare after that delay could disrupt the holder’s business and livelihood. O’Hare remained entitled to damages for breach of contract.