The Supreme Court awarded Rory Ennis two-thirds of the costs of his appeal against Allied Irish Banks plc, while making the costs of the High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings costs in the cause.
The costs ruling, delivered by Mr Justice John MacMenamin on 1 December 2021, followed the court’s decision on 15 March 2021 to allow Mr Ennis’s appeal and set aside orders granting summary judgment to the bank. The case was remitted to the High Court for a plenary hearing. The costs ruling did not decide the underlying dispute.
The bank submitted that the costs of the summary judgment proceedings should be costs in the cause, relying on an earlier Supreme Court decision concerning cases remitted for plenary hearing. It accepted that Mr Ennis had succeeded in the appeal, but argued he had not presented his whole case in the High Court and that his appeals had been conducted less than optimally.
The Supreme Court noted that the appeal concerned whether the Court of Appeal had applied the correct legal principles when dismissing Mr Ennis’s challenge to the summary judgment. It also noted defaults in how his case had been presented, including that the issues supporting the court’s conclusion were not fully addressed in his appeal papers. Arguments concerning the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 were not properly raised earlier and were not material to the substantive issue decided.
In setting costs, the court said it had to consider the event in the appeal as well as the nature and circumstances of the case, including whether it was reasonable to pursue issues and how the parties conducted their cases. It concluded that the just order was to award Mr Ennis two-thirds of the costs of the Supreme Court appeal and make the lower-court costs costs in the cause. Those costs will therefore be dealt with in the cause as it proceeds; the ruling did not award him those costs outright.