The Court of Appeal has ordered Bus Éireann and Declan Sheehan to receive the costs of their successful personal injuries appeal that accrued after 22 December 2022. The amount remains subject to agreement or adjudication by a Legal Costs Adjudicator.
In a costs ruling delivered on 15 November 2023, Mr Justice Noonan said the defendants’ offer to settle for €75,000, together with Gearoid O’Daly’s costs up to that date, exceeded the €65,688.10 ultimately awarded by the appeal court. The offer was made on 22 December 2022 and remained open until 6 January 2023. The appeal hearing took place on 12 January.
Mr O’Daly had offered on 12 December to accept €90,000 and costs. The court said that offer was ineffective in light of the result. The appeal had reduced the High Court award from €124,795.51 to €65,688.10 in the principal judgment, [2023] IECA 232.
The court considered how costs should be allocated when an award is reduced on appeal. It referred to earlier decisions addressing the competing concerns: a plaintiff may face hardship if required to bear costs after an excessive High Court award is reduced, while ordering the defendant to pay all appeal costs may diminish the benefit of a successful appeal.
The ruling noted that the defendants’ offer came very late, when most or all appeal costs may already have been incurred. Noonan J said the effectiveness of such a late offer was a matter for the Legal Costs Adjudicator. The order therefore covers only the defendants’ appeal costs accrued after 22 December; it does not set a total sum. Those costs are to be adjudicated in the normal way if the parties do not reach agreement. The judgment records that Binchy and Allen JJ agreed with the ruling.