Developer Johnny Ronan’s RGRE Grafton Ltd company is the owner of all six Harry Clarke stained glass windows in Bewley’s Café in Grafton Street, Dublin, the Court of Appeal (CoA) has ruled.
Last year, the High Court decided that only four of the windows were the property of RGRE Grafton, the landlord of the premises, while the other two were the property of the tenant, Bewley’s Café Grafton Street (BCGS) Ltd and its subsidiary, Bewley’s Ltd.
The six windows are said to be worth €1 million.
RGRE appealed that decision, and on Wednesday, Ms Justice Caroline Costello, on behalf of the three-judge CoA, found that all six belong to RGRE.
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She said the High Court was correct to conclude that the four windows – known as the Four Orders, as they depicted four orders of classical architecture – were part and parcel of the premises. In law, they were and remained the property of the original landlord and his successors in title, she said.
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However, she said, the High Court judge erred in concluding that RGRE had failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that the two other windows – known as the Swan Yard windows, as they overlooked this yard – also were part and parcel of the building.
The High Court erred in concluding that, instead, they were tenant’s fixtures, and therefore the property of Bewley’s Ltd on foot of an assignment from Bewley’s Café Grafton Street.
In her judgment, she said RGRE proved on the balance of probabilities, having regard to the totality of the evidence, that the Swan Yard works were part and parcel of the premises and property of the landlord.
She said the High Court judge’s conclusion was “based upon impermissible speculation” that must be rejected in light of the entirety of the evidence and the inferences, which it is reasonable to draw from such evidence.
She allowed the appeal and rejected a cross appeal from the defendants in relation to the other four windows. Earlier, she said the major difficulty in this case was the incomplete nature of the evidence and the resulting difficulty in resolving the legal issues presented in the case.
Of necessity, the High Court and the CoA were required to draw inferences from this incomplete picture.
“It need not be emphasised that great care must be taken in such a task,” she said.
Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington agreed with Ms Justice Costello, while Ms Justice Máire Whelan disagreed in a dissenting judgment.
Ms Justice Whelan said she would not only affirm the High Court order that the Swan Yard windows are owned by Bewleys Ltd, but grant the cross appeal and declare that the Four Orders windows were also “tenant’s fixtures”.
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