Case brought in 2012 against Royal College of Surgeons dismissed due to delay

The High Court has dismissed due to delay an action against the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland by a company that recruited Saudi Arabian medical students.

The Nahj Company for Services sued the college over the ending of what Mr Justice Garrett Simons said was “an arrangement” between the parties for the recruitment of students from Saudi Arabia to the defendant’s medical commencement programme.

The judge said the word “arrangement” was used deliberately by him in circumstances where the precise nature of the relationship between the parties was very much in dispute.

Nahj had contended the arrangement was in the form of a partnership while the college said it was in essence an agency agreement.

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The arrangement arose whereby the ministry of higher education in Saudi Arabia provided state-funded scholarships to students to participate in medical courses.

Nahj’s case was that it was entitled to a payment of €5,000 commission for each Saudi Arabian student registered on the RCSI programme between 2010 and 2014.

The college pleaded the arrangement was frustrated and brought to an end when the Saudi ministry of higher education issued a directive in June 2010 to the effect that all students were now to be recruited through the cultural section of the Saudi Arabian embassy in London.

It meant the defendant, and Nahj, as its agent, were to cease recruiting students in Saudi Arabia, and the fees were to be reduced by an amount equal to the commission which had until that date been due to Nahj.

However, Nahj claimed Saudi Arabian officials were advised in error by the college that the fee for each student was €21,000 instead of €16,000.

Nahj claimed the college continued to include a fee of €5,000 which was properly and lawfully due to Nahj.

The college strenuously denied the claims.

Earlier this month, Mr Justice Simons heard an application to dismiss the Nahj proceedings, which started in 2012, because of inordinate and inexcusable delay in prosecuting them. Nahj opposed the application.

On Monday, Mr Justice Simons ruled they should be dismissed.

The judge said it should be emphasised that the allegations made by Nahj were “merely that, allegations”, which were denied.

However, the very fact of the allegations having been made and maintained for a period of some 11 years was relevant to the balance of justice, he said.

Nahj, he said, had hoped to use the threat of these unproven allegations being publicised as “leverage” in mediating a settlement of the proceedings.

He said the balance of justice lay in favour of the dismissal for reasons including that the defendant had suffered unnecessarily prolonged reputational damage.

The delay had also adversely affected the ability of a court to adjudicate fairly on the claim.

Nahj had been given fair warning in November 2020 that the delay in the prosecution of these proceedings was a cause of concern to the court but had failed to act on that warning, he said.

It would represent a regression to the culture of “endless indulgence” of delay were Najh now to be afforded a second opportunity to mend its hand, he said.

Najh had “only itself to blame for this outcome”, he added.