Sligo County Council is facing a bill of several million euros after the Supreme Court ordered it to pay most of the costs of the long and bitter legal row over public rights of way across the historic Lissadell estate in Co Sligo.
The full costs of the case, initiated in 2009, are estimated to be at least €7 million. The five- judge court yesterday ordered the council to pay three-quarters of the legal costs incurred by Lissadell’s owners, barristers Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy, in the High Court and Supreme Court. The council must also pay its own legal costs bill.
In making the costs order, the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, noted the owners had sought declarations there were no public rights of way over four routes.
The Supreme Court had last November ruled there were no public rights of way over three of those routes but found there was a right of way over part of the fourth route, a coastal route to the beach at Lissadell.
Taking all the circumstances of the case into account, the court would grant the owners three-quarters of their costs in the High and Supreme Courts, the Chief Justice said.
The owners had asked the court to order the council to pay all of the costs in both courts but the council argued justice would be met by an order directing both sides to pay their own costs
Lawyers for both sides also insisted their clients had made efforts to settle the dispute and each blamed the other over failure to do so.
The court yesterday gave its reserved decision on costs and other issues raised by both sides arising from the court’s judgment allowing the owners’ appeal against the High Court finding of public rights of way across all four routes.
Following the judgment, the council raised issues concerning particular findings of the court and effectively sought a review of them.
It was argued the court had wrongly decided the Burrows, part of a route B-E in the estate, was not part of the old coastal route and the court should now declare a public right of way over the Burrows.
Yesterday, the Chief Justice said all references by the court to the route B-E included the Burrows. The council had not referred to any evidence that the Burrows corresponded to the old coastal route or to any diversion of the old coastal route on to that route, she said.
There could not be any public right of way over the Burrows, she ruled.
During the costs applications last month, the council had claimed the owners were determined to proceed with litigation, despite its offer to settle the case on the basis of acceptance of a public right of way to the beach at Lissadell.
The owners countered that the council had, both in the High Court and the Supreme Court, maintained its claim that all routes of way through the estate were public.
