The High Court has declared that Lett & Company Limited is entitled to €1.15 million in compensation from the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources for losses linked to a mussel-harvesting exclusion zone in Wexford Harbour.
In a judgment delivered on 23 May 2007, Mr Justice Clarke found that the company had a legitimate expectation it would be compensated for proven losses arising from the zone. He made a declaration of entitlement against the Minister. The judgment did not impose liability on Wexford Borough Corporation, and the court found no evidence that the treatment plant itself had directly caused losses.
The dispute followed construction of a Wexford town wastewater treatment plant and an outfall pipe whose discharge point was in one of the company’s mussel beds. A 500-metre zone preventing harvesting was in place from June 2001 until June 2006. The Minister discontinued it shortly before the first hearing was due to begin.
The company said the zone prevented it from using part of beds 30A and 30D and sought compensation. The court found that a compensation scheme had been promised to mussel fishermen, and that it would be unjust for the Minister to withdraw that promise. It also found the zone actually imposed was outside the exclusion-zone arrangements in the foreshore licence. As a result, the licence did not make Wexford Borough Corporation liable for compensation arising from that zone.
The court assessed losses up to the zone’s discontinuance at €500,000. That included €50,000 for the 2003/04 harvesting season and €450,000 for 2005/06. The figures were estimates of hypothetical lost production; the court said precise calculation was not possible. It rejected the company’s claim that extensive dredging and shale laying were required to restore the beds.
For the period after the zone ended, the court estimated a further €650,000 in losses while production returned gradually. It anticipated reduced production over two harvesting seasons as the company cautiously resumed use of the affected area, after which production could reach the level that would have applied without the zone.
The total declared entitlement was €1.15 million for proven losses. The judgment’s stated order was a declaration of entitlement to compensation in that sum against the Minister.