A Supreme Court decision on a lease dispute means a company will have to pay an annual rent of €309,500 rather than €230,000.

The background to the dispute between Stapleyside Company, landlord of Carraig Donn Retail Ltd, concerning a retail premises in the Crescent Shopping Centre in Limerick, is the difficulty faced by many tenants at the height of the crisis, in paying rent due under leases fixed at the height of the boom, Mr Justice Frank Clarke observed. He was giving the three-judge court's judgment granting an appeal by Stapleyside against a High Court decision which cleared the way for Carraig Donn to apply to the Circuit Court for a new lease under the terms of the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980.

The parties had entered into a 25-year lease, commencing in 2001, and later reached an arrangement providing for a reduced rent for 2009.

Carraig Donn claimed the original lease had come to an end and the High Court upheld that claim, with the result Carrig Donn applied for a new lease where a rent of €230,000 was fixed.