THE Building and Allied Trade Union yesterday won a Supreme Court appeal against a High Court order requiring it to repay £159,000 to Dublin Corporation.
The money was part of £224,000 compensation paid to the union last year by the corporation when it acquired some of the union's property at Cuffe Street, Dublin, for road widening and to reinstate the union's headquarters and the original facade on the reduced site.
The compensation had been decided by an arbitrator. There were two proposals before him. The first was that the corporation acquire the entire building for £88,000.
The arbitrator favoured a second proposal for the acquisition of some land for road widening, thereby enabling the union to reinstate the building. He made an award of £224,000, but before the land was conveyed most of the Bricklayers' Hall was demolished by the union. Since then, no attempt had been made to rebuild.
The corporation also sought the return of £136,000 - the difference between the £88,000 and the £224,000. It claimed this was the amount by which the union had been unjustly enriched.
Mr Justice Keane, giving the Supreme Court decision yesterday, said the union claimed the corporation's proceedings were an undisguised attack on the finality of the arbitrator's award. The union argued it was under no legal obligation to reinstate the building and there was no evidence the union acted in bad faith.
The Corporation argued that it was unconscionable for the union to change its mind and retain the compensation which it had been awarded on the basis that it would reinstate the building.