Everyone has a right of access to the legal system, but those who seek to use court process merely as an instrument of delay can expect short shrift. The Irish Court of Appeal made that point in finally guaranteeing full compensation to construction workers who were housed in substandard accommodation.
The case concerned a group of Portuguese workers who had been engaged to work on an Irish road-building project. Following protracted litigation, a judge found that their employers – three Portuguese companies – had breached their employment contracts by housing them inadequately.
The workers were subsequently awarded substantial damages and costs, but not a euro had to date been paid by the employers. Instead the employers launched appeals against the amount of the awards. In those circumstances, the workers’ lawyers applied to have the appeals struck out as an abuse of process.
In upholding the application, the Court noted that the employers had not participated in an eight-day trial at which the workers’ compensation was assessed. Costs and damages awarded against the employers in the instant and related cases ran well into seven figures, yet nothing had been paid. They had no bona fide grounds of appeal and were engaged in a persistent strategy to foster delay and stymie the progress of the workers’ cases.
The employers’ calculated abuse of the system had resulted in a waste of court time and resources and the appeals could not be viewed as a legitimate exercise of their right to litigate. Given the sorry history of the litigation, there was no indication that the pattern of their behaviour would change. The point at which finality was required having been reached, the Court found that it was proportionate to dismiss all of the employers’ appeals.