The High Court has quashed a €17,500 costs award against chartered accountant Alan Hynes, ruling that the professional body’s Appeal Tribunal had no power to make the award because it had no valid appeal before it.
In a judgment delivered on 7 May 2013, Mr Justice Hogan also upheld the Appeal Tribunal’s decision that it lacked jurisdiction to hear Mr Hynes’s appeal against preliminary rulings made during disciplinary proceedings.
The proceedings arose from complaints made in 2008 about a series of investment schemes Mr Hynes had apparently promoted. After an investigation, the Complaints Committee of the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (CARB) concluded in 2011 that a prima facie case had been made out and referred seven complaints to CARB’s Disciplinary Tribunal.
At a hearing on 23 January 2012, Mr Hynes sought to have the matter returned to the Complaints Committee so he could make oral submissions, to adjourn pending Garda investigations, and to have a direction issued about the format of papers. He also sought the recusal of two tribunal members over a perceived conflict. The members withdrew, so that application did not need to be decided. The other applications were refused.
Mr Hynes appealed those refusals. On 15 May 2012, the Appeal Tribunal dismissed the appeal, finding that no appeal lay under the rules because there had been no finding or order of the Disciplinary Tribunal. It then awarded CARB €17,500 in costs against him.
The High Court agreed that the appeal provisions covered findings on whether a disciplinary complaint had been proved, or orders made following such a finding. They did not extend to preliminary procedural decisions of the kind challenged by Mr Hynes.
But Justice Hogan separately ruled that the Appeal Tribunal’s power to award costs depended on a valid appeal. Since it had no jurisdiction to hear Mr Hynes’s appeal, it could not make a costs order against him. The court quashed the Appeal Tribunal’s 15 May 2012 decision only insofar as it awarded costs. It did not overturn the ruling that the appeal could not be heard, or determine the underlying disciplinary complaints.