Club Travel and its owner are seeking an interim High Court order requiring the owner of an adjacent building to remove wooden boxes from their roof which allegedly block out natural light to the travel agency's offices in Lower Abbey Street, Dublin.
Club Travel and its owner Liam Lonergan says Jean Moran and PIP Properties Ltd last week erected five boxes on the roof of number 30, which adjoins the travel agency premises, and which have blocked out light to the last remaining light getting into their offices.
The respondents have obtained planning permission for a new four-story residential development of four apartments.
Mr Lonergan says the window which the boxes block was erected along with others more than 20 years ago.
Underlying dispute
The court heard the respondents bought number 30 in 2017 and there has been an underlying dispute between the parties about the windows.
Jarlath Fiztsimons SC, for Mr Lonergan and Club, told the court even though the windows do not have permission, but due to the passage of time they are immune from enforcement and the respondents bought their premises in the full knowledge the windows were there.
This was, he said, the deliberate blocking of light by the respondents. The boxes were put up in day, could be removed in a day, and re-erected in a day if the court so found, he said.
Mr Justice Charles Meenan, who heard Mr Fitzsimons's application on a one side only represented basis, noted from photos that only the top of the Club Travel windows had natural light coming into them due to surrounding structures and the boxes had blocked out that remaining light.
He said the threshold for granting judicial review is high and the applicants had not met it.
However, that did not end the matter because there was a question of delay in this case and the balance of justice could be met by requiring that the respondents be put on notice of the application and the case can come back before him on Friday, October 15th.
