O'Callaghan v The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Judge | Ms. Justice Butler |
| Judgment Date | 22 March 2023 |
| Neutral Citation | [2023] IECA 64 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Ireland) |
| Docket Number | Record Number: 2022/77 |
and
[2023] IECA 64
Whelan J.
Pilkington J.
Butler J.
Record Number: 2022/77
High Court Record Number: 2020/295JR
THE COURT OF APPEAL
JUDGMENT of Ms. Justice Butler delivered on the 22nd day of March, 2023
In a judgment delivered on 17 January 2023 [2023] IECA 3 (Butler J., Whelan and Pilkington JJ concurring) the appellant's appeal was dismissed. At paragraph 47 of that judgment it was indicated that the Court's preliminary view was that as the appeal was unsuccessful the appellant should pay the respondent's costs but that if either party wished to take issue with the making of an order in those terms, they had liberty to file written submissions as to the appropriate form of order. In the event the appellant filed submissions on costs 28 January 2023 to which the respondent replied on 8 February 2023.
This is the Court's ruling on costs.
To briefly recap, the appeal concerned the adjournment of a statutory disciplinary hearing before the respondent. The appellant, who challenged the adjournment, raised two main issues namely, whether the respondent could adjourn the hearing at the behest of or in ease of the notice party having previously held that the persons in attendance on behalf of the notice party could not represent it and whether, in any event, the respondent had jurisdiction to entertain the underlying complaint made by the notice party against the appellant. The appellant was unsuccessful on both issues.
The respondent, as might be expected, is seeking its costs. In a concise submission it relies on section 169 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 and Order 99, rules 2 and 3 of the Rules of the Superior Courts (as amended by SI 584 of 2019) and the summary of the principles applicable to the costs regime governed by those provisions as set out in the judgement of this court (Murray J) in Chubb European Group SE v Health Insurance Authority [2020] IECA 183. As the respondent has been entirely successful in its defence of the appeal, it contends that the default position is that it is entitled to its costs and the appellant has not identified anything in the nature or circumstances of the case which would justify a departure from this rule.
The appellant identifies the same statutory and regulatory provisions as being relevant to the issue of costs on his appeal but argues that, having regard to section 169 (1)(a) and (b) the court should make no order for costs against him.
Section 169(1) of the 2015 act gives statutory expression to the well-established principle that “ costs follow the event” subject always to the court's discretion. It provides that a party who has been ‘ entirely successful’ in civil proceedings is entitled to costs ‘ unless the court orders otherwise, having regard to the particular nature and circumstances of the case, and the conduct of the proceedings by the parties’. It then provides a non-exhaustive list of matters to which the court should have regard when exercising this discretion. These include at (a) the parties' ‘ conduct before and during the proceedings’ and at (b) whether ‘ it was reasonable for a party to raise, pursue or contest one or more issues in the proceedings’.
The appellant points to a number of instances in my judgement where either it is acknowledged that the appeal arose in unusual circumstances and raised substantive legal issues or it is pointed out that the appellant was not responsible for the notice party's failures which led to the adjournment of the hearing before the respondent. The appellant argues that the institution of judicial review proceedings was a ‘justified and reasonable response’ to the circumstances in which the appellant found himself and that there were reasonable grounds for the appeal. Finally, the appellant points out that he has already borne the burden of his own costs of the...
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