Bovale Developments Ltd, the company of developers Michael and Thomas Bailey, has been awarded the costs of its High Court challenge to the use by the Director of Corporate Enforcement of certain material in his application to disqualify the brothers from management in any company on grounds of alleged serious misconduct and fraud in the affairs of Bovale.
Donal O'Donnell SC, for Bovale, applied for the full costs of the four-day hearing yesterday. Denis McDonald SC, for the director, argued that two-day costs only be allowed and a stay be put on the matter as, he submitted, Bovale had succeeded only in part in its case.
Ms Justice Mary Irvine said she did not think the director's proposed course of action would be appropriate and ruled that the entire costs should be awarded to Bovale. She also refused a stay on the costs award and adjourned the case to later this month.
Last month, the judge ruled the director could rely on an investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers into the affairs of Bovale Developments Ltd over a two-year period in his application to have the brothers disqualified.
However, she also found the director was not legally entitled to use certain other materials, including reports of the planning tribunal, as additional evidence of alleged wrongdoing.
The judge further ruled that a district court production order issued under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994, under which certain documents relating to the Bovale companies were seized by gardaí from financial institutions in 2002, was invalid.
