Olympia Productions Ltd v Mackintosh

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1992
• Date: 01 January 1992

(H.C.)

Olympia Productions Ltd

and

Mackintosh

- Place of performance - Contract - Plaintiff seeking to enforce an alleged contract whereby the defendants agreed to grant sole and exclusive rights to perform a musical - Defendants domiciled in United Kingdom - Whether Ireland the place of performance of the obligation - Whether claim vexatious - European Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, 1968, Arts. 2, 5 (1) -Rules of the Superior Courts, 1986, (S.I. No. 15), O. 19, r. 28.

The plaintiff owns the Olympia Theatre in Dublin and claimed it had a contract for the sole and exclusive right to perform the musical play, Les Misérables in Ireland. It sued the three defendants for specific performance of that contract. In the present action, the first and third named defendants applied under RSC O. 19, r. 28, or alternatively pursuant to the court's inherent jurisdiction, for an order striking out the claim against them on the ground that it was vexatious. They claimed they did not own and so could not grant the licence which was the subject matter of the claim. All three defendants also applied to set aside service of the summons on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the plaintiff's claim. They relied on the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, 1968 (known as the "Brussels Convention"). They claimed that under Article 2 of the Convention, the Irish courts had no jurisdiction to entertain the claim against them as all three of the defendants were domiciled in the United Kingdom. The plaintiff replied by referring to Article 5 (1) of the Convention which provides that, in matters relating to a contract, a person domiciled in a contracting state may be sued in the courts of the place of performance of the obligation. In their affidavit before the court, the three defendants also claimed that (a) negotiations between the parties had never crystallised into a final bargain and (b) that if a contract had been concluded, it was between the plaintiff and the second named defendant Cameron Mackintosh (Overseas) Ltd. who owned the relevant performing rights. Held by Costello J. in dismissing the application by the first and third-named defendants for an order striking out the plaintiff's claim but in making an order that service of the summons on...