The Supreme Court has ruled that costs should follow the event in an appeal concerning an application to extend the time to appeal a County Registrar’s order. The appellants, Brian Cannon and Christina Cannon, failed in their appeal despite the court finding that the High Court had interpreted the relevant test too rigidly.
The ruling on costs was delivered on 26 January 2021 by a five-judge Supreme Court panel. The substantive judgment in the appeal had been delivered on 4 February 2020. The appellants later sought to vary or rescind that judgment, but the application was refused without oral argument. The parties and the Attorney General then filed written submissions on costs.
The appellants sought all or a substantial part of the costs of the Supreme Court appeal and the High Court and Circuit Court proceedings. They argued that Pepper Finance had resisted a less rigid interpretation of the Éire Continental test for extending appeal time, and that the dispute might not have reached appeal otherwise. They also sought some costs from the Attorney General over the jurisdictional issue, and argued that the judgment had developed the law on courts’ own-motion assessment of unfair contract terms.
Pepper Finance disputed that it had resisted the less rigid test, saying it had accepted in the High Court that the test was not rigid and had argued that the appellants did not meet its criteria. It also said it had agreed the Supreme Court had jurisdiction and had not disputed the requirement for an own-motion assessment. The Attorney General said he had been invited to participate as amicus curiae, Ireland was not a party, and the appellants’ solicitor had previously confirmed that costs would not be sought against him.
The court said no costs order should be made against the Attorney General, noting that his participation had caused no delay or expense and that the parties had largely adopted his submissions at the appeal hearing.
As between the appellants and Pepper Finance, the court said the extension application had been made almost nine months after the County Registrar’s original order, although the applicable time limit was 10 days. It had found that the appellants’ case did not outweigh that significant delay. Although the High Court had applied an overly rigid interpretation of Éire Continental, the appellants had still failed in their appeal. The court therefore ordered that costs follow the event.