The High Court has ordered John Bergin to pay most of the costs of Mark Edmond Doyle’s successful oppression proceedings concerning Skytours Travel Limited. Doyle must pay Bergin, by way of offset, the costs relating to valuation evidence from two accountants. All costs are to be taxed if the parties cannot agree them.
The ruling, delivered by Miss Justice Laffoy on 20 December 2011, concerns costs only. In a judgment on the substantive application on 29 July 2011, the court had declared that the company’s affairs were being conducted oppressively towards Doyle and in disregard of his interests. It ordered Bergin to buy Doyle’s shareholding for €58,769.74 by 16 September 2011.
Bergin opposed paying all the costs, arguing that Doyle had lost arguments about the date for valuing the shares and whether their value should be discounted. The judge accepted that those arguments had not succeeded, but found they had not materially increased the overall costs of the case.
Bergin also relied on a written settlement offer made on 18 February 2011. It offered €75,000 for Doyle’s shares, with payment phased over six months, and reasonable legal costs incurred up to the offer if accepted within 21 days. Doyle rejected it, objecting to the amount and payment schedule and alleging fraud. Those statements were part of the correspondence, not findings made in this costs ruling.
The judge considered the offer under the court rules allowing written settlement offers to be taken into account when deciding costs. She found that the offer price exceeded the value later fixed by the court, but concluded that it would not be fair to make Doyle bear all costs incurred after the offer. More than two days of the hearing had addressed liability, which Bergin had contested, and the judge said the denial was untenable in light of her earlier findings. She awarded Doyle the costs of establishing liability and his entitlement to the remedy.
The judge treated the accountants’ valuation evidence separately. She found that Doyle had not obtained more for his shares than the offer provided, and ordered him to pay the costs associated with the two accountants’ expert evidence. In considering fairness, she noted that the offer provided for phased payment and that Doyle would have received €65,001 by 6 September 2011 if he had accepted it, compared with the court-ordered price payable by early September.
The court did not award Doyle the costs of the accountants’ valuation evidence. It ordered that those costs be offset against the costs Bergin must pay, with the total costs to be assessed if agreement cannot be reached.