The High Court has ordered Edmond P Harty & Company Unlimited Company to pay Edmond Patrick Harty €158,357.55 in statutory interest after delaying a €10 million payment due under a settlement agreement.
In a judgment delivered on 8 January 2024, Mr Justice Kennedy also awarded Harty the costs of his summary judgment application and hearings. Those costs are to be adjudicated if the parties cannot agree them.
The interest decision followed an earlier judgment, which found that a corporate restructuring had triggered an immediate obligation to pay Harty €10 million. The company paid that amount after the earlier judgment. The remaining questions were interest and costs.
The company argued that interest should not be awarded. It said the settlement did not provide for interest, the parties had a genuine dispute over whether payment had been accelerated, and Harty had provided no evidence of financial loss or borrowing caused by the delay. It also argued that the payment came about a year earlier than it would have under the settlement’s ordinary schedule.
Justice Kennedy rejected those submissions. He found that the agreement required immediate payment in the circumstances that occurred, and that the debt was a fixed contractual sum that did not require assessment. The company’s refusal to pay, based on legal arguments the judge found misconceived, caused the delay. The judge treated the dispute as commercial in nature despite its origins in a family dispute.
The court set interest at €158,357.55 for the period from 31 December 2022 to 16 October 2023, the date of the earlier judgment. Harty had claimed €195,618.15 for a longer period beginning in October 2022. The judge allowed time for the company to clarify its position and take legal advice, and concluded that interest was needed to fairly compensate for the delay.
The court said the interest award was not a penalty or a windfall. It also said allegations concerning Harty’s conduct in other matters remained unproven and were irrelevant to the interest decision. The final order provides for statutory interest and the application costs, with costs to be assessed if there is no agreement.