Case Reports

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has welcomed a landmark Supreme Court ruling that clarifies the rights of disabled students to receive accommodations within the education system. The test case, brought by dyslexic student Kim Cahill, focused on the nature of the duties owed by the Min

Two Irish companies who entered into a funding agreement with a third party which had no bona fide interest in the litigation have had their appeal to the Supreme Court dismissed. Chief Justice Susan Denham held that the funding agreement amounted to unlawful maintenance or champerty, and that to va

A couple who built their house in 2006, despite their application for planning permission being refused by Meath County Council, have been ordered by the Supreme Court to remove their dwelling and restore the lands to their pre-development condition. Describing the couple as having a “reckless dis

A woman has been awarded over £50,000 in damages after another driver drove into the back of her car, resulting in £3,000 worth of repairs. In the High Court in Belfast, evidence was adduced that the woman was impecunious, was unable to foot the bill for the repairs; and that she could not afford

A woman who was awarded a lump sum of €3.8 million, in addition to substantial property and monthly payments of €20,000, has had her case dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Delivering the judgment of the Court, Ms Justice Irvine held that the personal and financial misconduct of the woman’s ex-

The fund-freezing measures imposed on Rami Makhlouf, cousin of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, must be maintained for the period 2016-2017, the General Court of the European Union has confirmed. Since 2011, the Council has included Mr Rami Makhlouf on the list of persons covered by the restrictiv

An Irish man who works as a teacher in an international school in Brunei has been granted an order directing the return of his wife and two-year-old daughter to Brunei, after his wife ‘wrongfully removed their child from the jurisdiction’. The High Court heard that although the child was an Iris

The partner of murdered gangster Eamon Dunne has brought High Court action over Irish Life's refusal to pay her €250,000 on a life policy the couple took out two years before his death. The action has been taken by Georgia Saunders over an insurance policy she and Mr Dunne entered into with the in

A woman has been awarded €189,000 in damages by the High Court after a road traffic accident involving two cars resulted in a broken ankle, leaving her permanently disabled. The court accepted that the woman went to the assistance of a driver whose car had crashed into a ditch, and that while doin

A man who was convicted of raping a pregnant woman as she slept alone in her bedroom has successfully appealed the severity of his sentence, having had his sentence of seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment quashed, and varied by the Court of Appeal to six years’ imprisonment. Delivering the judgm

of the member states as the provisions of the agreement relating to non-direct foreign investment and to dispute settlement between investors and states do not fall within the exclusive competence of the European Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled. On 20 September 2013, the

Allied Irish Bank Plc has successfully appealed a finding of the High Court that it did not have a right-of-way to gain access to apartments through a common area held by a management company, which was based upon an erroneous understanding of a court-ordered deed. Mr Justice Sean Ryan, President of

An asbestos consultancy firm which was granted a contract with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in 2013 has been ordered by the High Court to provide all timesheets in relation to the contract in an ongoing dispute over compensation for the agreed works. Mr Justice Deeny criticised the consult

An air carrier which is unable to prove that a passenger was informed of the cancellation of his flight more than two weeks before the scheduled time of departure is required to pay compensation to that passenger – this applies not only when the contract for carriage was concluded directly between

A company who successfully argued that there had been a breach of its registered trademark, has been awarded €35k in damages for the breach, having been refused an Account of Profits by the High Court in circumstances where their ‘reprehensible behaviour’ towards the defendant company ‘was s