The Court of Appeal has ordered Eugenie Houston to pay the State respondents’ costs after her unsuccessful challenge to a High Court order restricting her ability to bring further proceedings without prior permission.
The costs ruling was delivered on 17 February 2026. It followed the Court of Appeal’s substantive judgment of 21 November 2025, which dismissed Houston’s appeal and affirmed the High Court order.
That order requires Houston to obtain prior leave from the President of the High Court, or a nominated High Court judge, before issuing proceedings against people or categories of potential defendants identified in a schedule. Such restrictions are commonly referred to as Isaac Wunder orders.
After losing the appeal, Houston argued against the normal rule that the successful parties should receive their costs. Much of her written submission repeated claims from earlier litigation which the High Court had already struck out and dismissed in February 2024 as bound to fail, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process.
Mr Justice Anthony M. Collins said those earlier issues were res judicata, meaning they had already been finally determined and could not be reopened during the costs ruling.
Houston also argued that the case raised matters of general public importance and public interest. She relied on Supreme Court guidance concerning costs in public-interest litigation.
The Court of Appeal rejected that argument. It held that an appeal against an Isaac Wunder order made in the circumstances of this case did not fall within the relevant definition of public-interest proceedings. The court also found that none of the ten grounds advanced in the substantive appeal raised a point of law of general public importance.
The judges therefore found no basis to depart from the normal rule that costs follow the event.
Ireland and the Attorney General were awarded the costs of the appeal, including all reserved costs, against Houston. The judgment does not quantify the amount payable.