Cork County Council has been awarded the costs of its successful judicial review challenge to a ministerial requirement to coordinate its development plan with Cork City Council, after the High Court rejected the Minister’s request to limit the award to one day’s hearing costs.
In a judgment delivered on 15 August 2022, Mr Justice Humphreys said the council had not succeeded on every issue in the case, so the costs decision fell under the court’s discretion in section 168 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. The court had previously quashed the requirement under section 9(7) of the Planning and Development Act 2000.
The Minister’s focus in the costs dispute was that the two-day hearing should have taken one day. The judge said the matter was complex and could not have concluded in one day, even if the council had confined its case to the points on which it succeeded. Most of the paperwork would have been needed in any event, and the additional costs from the council’s unsuccessful sub-issues were not significant enough to justify a discount.
The judge said reducing costs by a few per cent without a material increase in the work risked encouraging further litigation over costs. He concluded that neither a discount nor a cross-order in favour of the Minister was warranted. Special costs rules did not apply; the environmental-law issues did not need to be decided.
The court ordered the Minister to pay the council’s costs of the proceedings, including reserved costs and written submissions, as well as the costs of two counsel for the leave application. It also awarded the council its costs of litigating the costs issue. The Minister may set off against those costs the costs previously awarded to him in relation to a stay.