The Law Society of Ireland will recover 80% of its full costs in a High Court case brought by Colm Murphy after the court decided that a full costs award would not reflect its observations about the Society’s conduct.
Mr Justice MacGrath delivered the costs judgment on 13 November 2019. Murphy had sought damages for misfeasance in public office, negligence, defamation and breach of confidence. Those claims had been dismissed in a judgment delivered on 31 July 2019. The court had found that the principal claims in misfeasance and negligence amounted to an impermissible collateral challenge to existing court orders. It also found, in the alternative, that those claims had not been made out on the facts or law.
The Society, as the successful defendant, sought its full costs. Murphy’s counsel argued that the court should exercise its discretion in light of what he described as express and implied criticisms of the Society in the earlier judgment.
The judge said the usual starting point was that costs follow the event. The Society had succeeded in defending all the claims, and the judge said the more complex approach used in some cases involving multiple issues did not apply here. However, the court could depart from the usual rule where the interests of justice required it, based on the facts and conduct in the particular case.
In deciding against a full award, the judge referred to observations in the earlier judgment about the Society’s response to queries arising from the O’Dowd investigation. He said further reasonable and simple steps, such as making a phone call, might have avoided the need for an order for substituted service and affected the timing of proceedings under section 18. The judge also noted that the Society had maintained an undertaking was given to the court, although that was not reflected in the court order and he had found on the facts that no undertaking existed. He referred as well to how a matter whose name is redacted in the judgment was introduced into attachment and contempt proceedings, and to what he described as the Society’s combative approach in some internal communications. The judge also said Murphy had contributed to the situation concerning the undertaking.
The court ordered that the Society’s recoverable costs must not exceed 80% of its full costs, once taxed and ascertained. The judgment states that Murphy had previously obtained costs orders in respect of earlier hearings, including proceedings in the High Court and an appeal to the Supreme Court, but this order concerns the Society’s costs in the present proceedings.