The Court of Appeal has awarded the Law Society of Ireland its costs of an application by Colm Murphy to extend the time for appealing a 2017 High Court consent order. The award includes the costs of written submissions on costs.
In a ruling delivered on 17 January 2024, Mr Justice Noonan confirmed the court’s provisional view that the Society should receive its costs because it had been entirely successful in the application. Justices Mary Faherty and David Meenan authorised him to record their agreement.
The application concerned a consent order made on 11 December 2017. It limited Mr Murphy’s claim to matters in an amended statement of claim delivered in 2011 and updated particulars provided in October 2017. He sought more time to appeal more than five years after the order.
In an earlier judgment, delivered on 12 December 2023, the Court of Appeal found that Mr Murphy had not explained the lengthy delay or established an arguable ground of appeal on any of the matters he raised. It also held that the application was misconceived and an abuse of process.
In his costs submissions, Mr Murphy argued that the court should use its discretion under section 169 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 to depart from the usual position that an entirely successful party receives its costs. He alleged that the Society had deceived courts and withheld information. The ruling records that these allegations had not been upheld in earlier judgments and were denied by the Society.
Mr Murphy asked the court to defer deciding costs until he brought a motion concerning the conduct of solicitors involved in the proceedings. The court found no valid reason to postpone its decision and no basis to depart from the prima facie rule that the successful Society should receive its costs. It confirmed the award for the application and the written costs submissions.