The High Court has directed the State to make an interim payment of €375,000 to Co Donegal man Frank Shortt.
Mr Shortt had sued the State for damages following his wrongful conviction on a charge of allowing his nightclub in Inishowen to be used for the sale of drugs.
Mr Shortt, who is 69, is seeking damages of several million euro from the State.
It is seven years since Mr Shortt was released from prison after serving 27 months of a three-year sentence.
In 2000 the DPP revealed he was not opposing Mr Shortt's new appeal.
Two years later the Court of Criminal Appeal certified that he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice because of deliberate suppression of material by two gardaí, Det Garda Noel McMahon and Supt Kevin Lennon.
Both men are now disgraced as a result of findings of the Morris Tribunal. Supt Lennon was sacked from the force, Noel McMahon resigned.
Last year Mr Shortt embarked on the last leg of his battle to win compensation for his wrongful imprisonment. The High Court was asked to assess damages.
The President of the High Court was expected to deliver judgment in May but Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan deferred his decision.
He will now deliver his full judgment in October at the start of the new legal term. Mr Shortt and his family were not in court today when the payment was announced.
