The High Court dismissed Córas Iompair Éireann’s application to enforce an arbitration award concerning rent from car parking spaces serving the Conference Centre at Spencer Dock, Dublin.
In a judgment delivered on 11 March 2011, Miss Justice Laffoy said the arbitrator had found that CIE was entitled to “Additional Rent” for 240 parking spaces allocated for Conference Centre attendees. But the award did not establish that the amount due was 17.5% of the respondents’ gross parking rents, as CIE sought to have the court order.
The arbitration award, dated 29 October 2010, concluded that the car park spaces were elements other than the Conference Centre under the relevant development agreement. The arbitrator held for CIE and found it entitled to Additional Rent. He invited the parties to make further submissions on the wording of any declarations and on orders needed to implement the finding. The judgment records that, according to the respondents’ counsel, no declarations or orders had been sought from the arbitrator.
CIE asked the court to direct Spencer Dock Development Company Limited and Pearl Bay Limited to pay it 17.5% of gross rents from the car parking facility. It also sought an account of the rents, sequestration of the respondents’ property and attachment of their directors for disobedience to the award.
The respondents argued that the arbitrator had not decided how Additional Rent should be calculated, including whether it was based on gross rents. They submitted that this left a new dispute for arbitration. No replying affidavit was filed for them.
Justice Laffoy said the award did not expressly or implicitly establish CIE’s entitlement to 17.5% of gross rents. The court therefore refused the primary enforcement order and the ancillary reliefs. It also ruled that it had no jurisdiction under Article 8(1) of the Model Law to refer the asserted dispute to arbitration in these enforcement proceedings. The judge said the parties could make further submissions to the arbitrator, as invited.
The judgment expressed no view on a separate arrangement involving Pearl Bay and Park Rite Limited, which it described as extraneous to the enforcement application.