The owner of the printing business Reads has secured a High Court injunction preserving what it says is the main access route to its premises from Dublin's Nassau street.
In her judgement on Monday, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty said that O'Flaherty's (Nassau St.) Limited, which trades as Reads was entitled to an order against Setanta Centre Unlimited Company, which is the owner of an office building on Dublin's Nassau Street.
The injunction is to remain in place pending the outcome of the full hearing of the action.
O'Flaherty's operates an outlet within a campus known as the Setanta Campus, which is just to the South of but visible, and accessible from Nassau Street via a concourse.
The defendant, owned by the family of businessman Larry Goodman, is redeveloping the building over the next two years at a cost of €150m.
O Flaherty's which has four more years left on its lease, claimed that as part of the redevelopment works the defendant had obstructed access to its premises from Nassau Street with scaffolding and hoarding.
The obstruction, it is claimed is permanent as it is intended to replace the temporary structures with the planned new building.
O'Flaherty's represented by Michéal O'Connell SC and John O'Regan Bl, claimed that this interference with its main access route from Nassau Street, breached its property rights.
It also claimed that its business would be damaged particularly as a large part of its business comes from nearby Trinity College, Dublin.
As a result it sought orders including an injunction requiring the defendant to remove the obstruction currently blocking access to the retail premises.
The defendant opposed the application, denied that blocking the Nassau Street access breached O'Flaherty's rights, and argued that the granting of an injunction would cause it a commercial loss.
The defendant argued that it was entitled to build on its own premises, that the lease between the parties did not include an express right to access by the concourse, and that damages were an adequate remedy.
It also argued that O'Flaherty's premises could be accessed via another route, namely Setanta Place. The defendant further said it had offered to pay for improvements to the Setanta Place access.
In her judgement Ms Justice Gearty said while the existence of an easement between the premises and Nassau Street was a matter to be decided at the full trial the judge was satisfied that O'Flaherty's had raised a fair question to be tried.
It was arguable that the defendant has diminished O'Flaherty's use of the premises by interfering with the access route to Nassau Street, she said.
Ms Justice Gearty also held that the balance of convenience favoured the granting of the injunction.
Turing to the adequacy of damages the judge said what the court was seeking to protect said the defendant had argued that the interests on both sides were "commercial" and that it was in the wider interests that the development proceed.
The Judge said that "certainty" for residential and commercial leaseholders is more important as a societal value than a single building project.
It is also more important that the availability of compensation if leasehold rights are breached, the judge added.
The judge said to refuse to grant an injunction because a defendant can compensation a plaintiff for what may turn out to be a breach of a right sends a dangerous message to litigants who are well resourced.
"The message being that money can buy a party out of any breach of the law. That is not so," she added.
The judge noted that in his opening submissions to the court Mr O'Connell had quoted from a case called AIB vs Diamond.
The Judge in her decision began with a quotation from the Neil Diamond song Forever in Blue Jeans that "Money talks. But it can't sing and dance and it can't walk."
This the judge said meant that "while money is important to all, some things are more important than money."
In all the circumstances the judge said she was satisfied to grant the injunction.
The case will return before the court for final orders later this week.
"We note and respect the decision of the court today to temporarily grant Reads a right of access through Setanta Centre until the substantive case concerning the alleged right of way is heard," a spokesperson for the Setanta Centre said.
"We will facilitate access to Reads' retail unit from Nassau Street while we progress the redevelopment of the property."
