Jones v Coolmore Stud
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Judge | McKechnie J.,MacMenamin J.,Baker J. |
| Judgment Date | 06 October 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] IESCDET 115 |
| Date | 06 October 2020 |
| Court | Supreme Court |
| Docket Number | Supreme Court record no: S:AP:IE:2020:000092 High Court record no: 2018 No. 2122 P |
[2020] IESCDET 115
McKechnie J.
MacMenamin J.
Baker J.
Supreme Court record no: S:AP:IE:2020:000092
Court of Appeal record no: A:AP:IE:2019:000446
High Court record no: 2018 No. 2122 P
THE SUPREME COURT
DETERMINATION
RESULT: The Court does not grant leave to the Plaintiff to appeal to this Court from the Court of Appeal
REASONS GIVEN:
ORDER SOUGHT TO BE APPEALED
| COURT: Court of Appeal |
| DATE OF JUDGMENT OR RULING: 27 th April, 2020 |
| DATE OF ORDER: 21 st July, 2020 |
| DATE OF PERFECTION OF ORDER: 22 nd July, 2020 |
| THE APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL WAS MADE ON 18 th August, 2020 AND WAS NOT IN TIME. |
The general principles applied by this Court in determining whether to grant or refuse leave to appeal having regard to the criteria incorporated into the Constitution as a result of the Thirty-third Amendment have now been considered in a large number of determinations and are fully addressed in both a determination issued by a panel consisting of all of the members of this Court in B. S. v. Director of Public Prosecutions [2017] IESCDET 134 and in a unanimous judgment of a full Court delivered by O'Donnell J. in Quinn Insurance Ltd. v. PricewaterhouseCoopers [2017] IESC 73, [2017] 3 IR 812. It follows that it is unnecessary to revisit the new constitutional architecture for the purposes of this determination.
Furthermore, the application for leave filed and the respondent's notice are published along with this determination (subject only to any redaction required by law) and it is therefore unnecessary to set out the position of the parties.
Any ruling in a determination concerns whether the facts and legal issues meet the constitutional criteria identified above, is particular to that application, and is final and conclusive only to that extent and as between the parties.
The respondent opposes the grant of leave.
This is the application of William Jones (“the applicant”) for leave to appeal to this Court pursuant to the provisions of Article 34.5.3° of the Constitution from the order of the Court of Appeal of 21 July 2020, by which for the reasons therein set out in the judgment of Donnelly J., with which Faherty and Haughton JJ. agreed, the appeal brought by the applicant was dismissed.
The applicant issued proceedings on 12 March 2018 seeking damages for defamation and injunctive relief following the publication of a letter sent to a book distributor by Coolmore Stud (“the respondent”). The letter complained that a book written and published by the applicant contained material defamatory of the respondent and that its publication breached contract, confidentiality and copyright. The applicant issued a motion for judgment in default of defence on 25 January 2019.
On 12 February 2019, the respondent issued a motion seeking to have the action dismissed on the basis that in previous proceedings between the parties the High Court and the Court of Appeal had found that the writing of such letters was done for legitimate legal purpose, [2016] IEHC 329, [2017] IECA 164. Leave to appeal was refused [2017] IESCDET 117.
In a judgment...
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