Supreme Court Upholds Recognition Of EU Judgment In Ireland

The Irish Supreme Court has delivered a second judgment in the Scully v Coucal litigation, rejecting a further argument that the recognition and enforcement of a Polish judgment should be refused in Ireland under the public policy exception in the Brussels Recast Regulation.

Background

The underlying dispute related to an investment in a Polish shopping centre project, resulting in Mr Scully being subject to a Polish Court of Appeal judgment awarding approximately €6.33 million to Coucal Limited ("Coucal").

In its first judgment earlier this year, the Irish Supreme Court rejected the argument that recognition of the Polish judgment would be contrary to Irish public policy in circumstances where individual investors in the project had assigned their causes of action to Coucal in a manner claimed to be champertous and therefore unenforceable under Irish law. In doing so, the Supreme Court was clear that refusal of recognition of EU judgments on public policy