Resources
Case law update - 12 March
Recent cases published on the Courts website are listed below.
Communications Regulation
Commission for Communications Regulation v Sky Ireland Ltd
14/1/2026 No. 2025 275 MCA [2026] IEHC 12
Communications regulation - Applicant seeks orders requiring the respondent to cease from contravening Regulation 89(6) of the European Union (Electronic Communications Code) Regulations 2022 as amended - Communication services - Service providers - Customer contracts - Contracts of 'of indeterminate duration' - Expiry of contracts - Failure to provide end-of-contract notifications - Automatic renewal - Failure to notify of alternative tariffs - EU regulations - Breach - Denial of opportunity of staying with current provider on the same or different package or to switch to a new provider - Statutory provisions - Application granted
Commission for Communications Regulation v Sky Ireland Ltd
Construction Law
Tenderbids Ltd t/a Bastion v Electrical Waste Management Ltd
12/1/2026 No. 2025 308 MCA [2026] IEHC 5
Construction law - Construction contracts - Payment dispute - Payment claim notice - Failure to respond to notice - Application for leave to enforce a decision of an adjudicator - Default decision - Whether the payee is entitled, by default, to an adjudicator's decision directing payment in the amount specified in the payment claim notice - Construction Contracts Act 2013 - Whether the 2013 Act provides for such a default direction to pay - Statutory interpretation - Application to enforce the adjudicator's decision
Tenderbids Ltd t/a Bastion v Electrical Waste Management Ltd
Criminal Law
People (DPP) v W (D)
12/12/2025 No. 168/2022 [2025] IECA 286
Criminal law - Conviction - Offences of assault causing harm, false imprisonment, rape and coercive control - Appellant appealing against conviction - Trial judge erred in law and in fact in failing to discharge the jury when requested to do so by counsel for the appellant - Trial judge erred in admitting evidence regarding the effects of coercive control on the complainant - Whether said evidence was irrelevant to the issue to be tried and prejudiced the appellant's right to a fair trial - Appeal dismissed
People (DPP) v Canavan, Lee
19/12/2025 No. 113/2021 [2025] IECA 300
Criminal law - Conviction - Offences of murder and criminal damage - Appellant appealing against conviction on various grounds - Failure to exclude the evidence of the eyewitness in its entirety - CCTV footage - Allowing the admission of identification evidence of An Garda Siochana - Finding that general association with others was indicative of guilt - Failing to accede to the defence application for a direction - Whether unfairness arose in the trial - Grounds of appeal rejected - Appeal against conviction dismissed
European Arrest Warrants
Minister for Justice v Balogova, Lucie
19/12/2025 No. 2025 05 EXT [2025] IEHC 752
European arrest warrant - Applicant seeking the surrender of the respondent to Czechia - Surrender sought to serve a prison sentence imposed - Failure to ensure the compulsory school attendance of her minor children - Respondent objects to her surrender - Surrender is precluded by under s. 38 of the 2003 Act - Surrender is precluded by reason of interference with Article 8 ECHR rights - Submissions - Order made for the surrender of the respondent to Czechia
Minister for Justice v Balogova, Lucie
Family Law
K (H I) v S (K L), in the matter of the Child Abduction and Enforcement of Custody Orders Act 1991
7/1/2026 No. 2025 12 HLC [2026] IEHC 9
Family Law - Child - Wrongful removal - Respondent mother retained the child in Ireland following a holiday - Respondent alleges the applicant father consented to the visit to Ireland - Whether the child was habitually resident in Romania at all material times - Whether the applicant posed a grave risk to the child - Views of the child - Child has expressed objections to returning to Romania - Parental influence - Best interests of the child - Court orders that the child be returned to Romania
K (H I) v S (K L), in the matter of the Child Abduction and Enforcement of Custody Orders Act 1991
M v L, in the matter of the Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989 and in the matter of the Family Law Act 1995
19/12/2025 No. 2025/250 ]2025] IECA 298
Family law - Children - Circuit Court order - Custody and care arrangements - Appeal to the High Court - Circuit Court order affirmed - Appeal - Right of further appeal - Whether the Court of Appeal has jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the High Court's decision - Whether the High Court's orders fell within its statutory appellate jurisdiction and were therefore final and not appealable - Notice of appeal struck out for want of jurisdiction
Immigration
M (T) (South Africa) (No. 2) v Minister for Justice and Equality and the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána; and the Governor of Cloverhill Prison
27/1/2026 No. 2024 386 JR [2026] IEHC 37
Immigration - Judicial review application - South African national - Deportation order - Challenge to respondent's decision - Failure to afford the applicant 28 days to challenge the deportation order renders the deportation order unlawful - Arrest and detention of the applicant prior to the expiry of time allowed to challenge the order amounted to an unlawful curtailment of the right to an effective remedy - S. 50 refoulement consideration failed to have regard to the risk of harm to the applicant as set out in submissions provided by the applicant - Application refused
Landlord and Tenant
Michael, Phyllis v Doody, Norman
12/1/2026 No. 2025 72 CA [2026] IEHC 7
Landlord and tenant - Protected tenancy - Possession proceedings - Domestic dwelling - Plaintiff the registered owner of the premises and was granted an order for possession - Defendant seeks to appeal the making of this order - Defendant continued living in the premises after his mother's death - Whether the defendant could establish a legal tenancy in his own right or through the estate - Whether the protected tenancy ended on the death of the defendant's mother - Housing (Private Rented Dwellings) Act 1982 - Residential Tenancies Act 2004 – Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980 - Statutory interpretation - Plaintiff entitled to an order for possession - Appeal dismissed
Michael, Phyllis v Doody, Norman
Pensions
Jones, Freddie v Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Ireland, and Attorney General; and Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (notice party)
19/1/2026 No. 2024 1393 JR [2026] IEHC 19
Pensions - Pension scheme - Spouse's benefit provision - Eligibility - Applicant's late partner was a member of a civil service occupational pension scheme - Unmarried - Applicant refused pension scheme benefit - Surviving spouse - Relationship status - Art. 40 of the Constitution - Equality - Discrimination - Challenge to decision to refuse spousal benefit - Applicant declared to be qualified cohabitant - Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 - Pensions Act 1990 - O'Meara v Minister for Social Protection [2024] IESC 1 - Court finds the applicant is entitled to a declaration that the failure of the Scheme to provide him with a spouses' pension is incompatible with Art. 40.1 of the Constitution
Practice and Procedure
Graham, James v CPL Healthcare Ltd and Túsla, Child and Family Agency
13/1/2026 No. 2019 2926 P [2026] IEHC 3
Practice and procedure - Personal injuries - Strike out application - Assault in a residential care facility - Damages claim - Defendants seeking an order striking out the plaintiff's claim for want of prosecution and an order striking out the plaintiff's claim for inordinate and/or inexcusable delay - Delay in prosecuting claim - Passage of time - Loss of witness memory - Prejudice - Claim struck out
Graham, James v CPL Healthcare Ltd and Túsla, Child and Family Agency
McEvoy, David v Dublin City Council
22/12/2025 No. 2011 165 P [2025] IEHC 745
Practice and procedure - Personal injuries - Strike out application - Paramedic - Fall from ambulance - Damages claim - Defendant’s application to dismiss the plaintiff's action for personal injuries due to excessive delay in prosecution - Cumulative periods of inactivity - Extensive and unexplained delays - Lapse of time - Procedural fairness - Court finds the plaintiff has failed to prosecute his case in a timely manner - Plaintiff's action struck out
McEvoy, David v Dublin City Council
Neiser, Stephanie v Leinster Senior College Ltd, and Idemudia Akpekpe (notice party)
15/1/2026 No. 2012 4689 P [2026] IEHC 15
Practice and procedure - Personal injuries proceedings - Application to dismiss on grounds of delay - School - Student - Fall down stairs - Student alleged she was pushed down the stairs by another student - Serious ankle injury - Previous application to dismiss refused - Failure to progress proceedings - Delay in making discovery of medical records - Covid-19 - Plaintiff given a "clear warning" by the court that there should be no further delay in obtaining a hearing date - Non-compliance - Failure to fix hearing date - Whether there were exceptional circumstances - Proceedings dismissed
Neiser, Stephanie v Leinster Senior College Ltd, and Idemudia Akpekpe (notice party)
Property Law
Connolly, Ronan and Carol Dillon v Connolly, Matthew James and Ann O'Connor
12/1/2026 No. 2025 24 SP [2025] IEHC 10
Property law - Residential property - Property inherited by four siblings - Co-ownership dispute - Disagreement on mode of sale - Applicants seeking an order for sale pursuant to s. 31 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 - Whether to sell on the open market - Whether to accept a developer's 'option to buy' if and when the developer obtains planning permission - First respondent seeks that an order should be made directing that the co-owners enter into an option agreement with a purchaser - Whether it would be just and equitable to make such an order - Court encourages the parties to agree a solicitor and estate agent/auctioneer - Court makes order for the sale of the Property pursuant to section 31(2)(c) of the 2009 Act
Connolly, Ronan and Carol Dillon v Connolly, Matthew James and Ann O'Connor
Wills
Lynch, Frances, Hugh Fitzgibbon and York Design Ltd v Murphy, Gregory Olan
16/1/2026 No. 2025/118 [2026] IECA 2
Wills - Probate - Appeal against a High Court judgment striking out the plaintiffs' claim - Court held the three plaintiffs lacked standing to maintain the will challenge/probate suit as no outcome would could confer a benefit on them as they did not have a "sufficient interest" in the estate - Appellants appealing of various grounds - Public interest - Whether High Court erred in finding that the litigation "was not bona fide" by reason that none of the appellants could benefit from it - Court finds the appellant have failed to establish any valid basis which would warrant interfering with the determinations and conclusions of the High Court - Appeal dismissed
Lynch, Frances, Hugh Fitzgibbon and York Design Ltd v Murphy, Gregory Olan
Coverage: All reserved written judgments published by the Courts Service are indexed on the Library Catalogue where they can be searched by party name, judge, subject, keyword and other filters. Members may log in to the catalogue with their solicitor number and library PIN, available by emailing libraryenquire@lawsociety.ie