A High Court has ruled in favour of the publican in a rent dispute involving landmark Dublin pub The Barge Inn.
Businessman Phillip Hickey and his accountant co-director, Danny O'Connell, were told that their company, The Barge Inn Limited, may continue to run the pub at a vastly reduced rent without interference from its landlord.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy said a €400,000 annual rent for The Barge, formerly owned by bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn, had been reduced in 2010 due to prevailing adverse economic circumstances.
The rent was reduced by a mutual unwritten agreement to €273,000.
She said the pub, on Dublin's Royal Canal at Charlemont Street, had been owned by a company in the Quinn Group which had leased it to The Barge Inn Limited.
After the collapse of the Quinn Group the landlord, Quinn Hospitality Ireland Operations Three Limited, which was the defendant in the High Court proceedings, had moved to forfeit the lease and take back the pub.
IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, took control of Quinn Hospitality Operations Three on foot of debts owed by the Quinn Group after its collapse.
The Hickey-O'Connell owned company had disputed the right of forfeiture over claimed rent arrears and sought a court order directing that the rent remain at its reduced level.
Judge Laffoy said Quinn Group hotel operations director, Colette Quinn, had been involved in the unwritten 2010 rent reduction agreement which lasts until the next rent review in April 2014.
Judge Laffoy said Quinn Hospitality Ireland Operations Three Limited was not entitled to withdraw the concession it had made to accept a reduced rent of €273,000 a year while the business was adversely affected by prevailing economic circumstances.
On the evidence she found there had been no material change to date on the capacity of the publican to generate increased turnover.
She had no doubt that a yearly rent greater than €273,000 was not currently sustainable.
The court granted orders restraining the landlord from forfeiting the lease or re-entering and taking possession of the pub or increasing the rent.
