THE HIGH Court has ordered that the landlord of a Dublin beauty salon return the items seized from the store earlier this month on condition that he receive €20,000 towards arrears in rent he claims he is owed.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy granted South Street Beauty Ltd, which operates the Nu Essence salon at South Anne Street, Dublin, an order compelling their landlord Graham Quinn to return all goods and materials seized since May 12th from the salon.
These include books with details such as customers’ medical records, stock, equipment and cash.
In his ruling, Mr Justice McCarthy said that while he was satisfied to grant the injunction, pending the full hearing of the action, he was only prepared to order the return of the salon’s equipment if €20,000 towards the €122,000 in rent owed by the tenants was paid to Mr Quinn.
Mr Quinn has denied any wrongdoing and argued that the company was not entitled to have the equipment back in light of the rent owed.
Michael Delaney SC for South Street Beauty said that Mr Quinn and a number of others had entered the store and seized the materials on May 12th, leaving customers and staff shocked.
Mr Delaney said that Mr Quinn was not entitled to take this action and that the company was being held to ransom as it could not trade without the equipment.
He said that in 2006, the directors of South Street Beauty, Margaret and George Kelly, had entered into an agreement to lease the premises from Mr Quinn for €78,000 a year. However, Mr Quinn was not the owner and had leased the building from Malpas Holdings Ltd for €44,000 a year.
Mr Delaney said that in late 2008, the business suffered a downturn and struggled to make rent payments. Mr Quinn was informed of this and they continued to make some payments to Mr Quinn.
Mr Delaney said his clients became concerned for their lease after discovering that in August 2008, no payments had been made by Mr Quinn to Malpas.
They were informed in June/ July 2009 that Malpas was taking proceedings against Mr Quinn over the non-payment of rent and had issued ejectment proceedings which were pending.
Mr Delaney then said that his clients, who had hoped that negotiations between the parties would resolve the matter, took a business decision not to continue to pay Mr Quinn rent and kept money aside.
Susan Lennox for Mr Quinn, Wrenwood House, Killeen, Oldtown, Co Dublin, claimed that under a clause in the lease, Mr Quinn was entitled to seize the goods because rent arrears dating back to 2008 had not been paid.
Mr Delaney said that the reason Mr Quinn was unable to pay rent to Malpas Holdings was because rent due to him had been withheld by South Street Beauty. The company was not entitled to the orders it was seeking, he added.
In his ruling Mr Justice McCarthy said he was satisfied to grant the injunction because of the distress that had been caused to South Street Beauty.
However the judge said that the “conscious and deliberate decision” by the company to withhold rent was “wholly wrong”. In that regard, the judge said that if €20,000 was paid within seven days, he would make an order directing Mr Quinn to return the items he had taken.