Developer Johnny Ronan’s RGRE Grafton Ltd company is the owner of all six Harry Clarke stained glass windows in Bewley’s cafe in Grafton Street, Dublin, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The dispute over the windows had already been through the High Court, which decided only four of the six were RGRE property, and the other two property of the tenant. The Court of Appeal subsequently decided all six were RGRE property. The six windows are said to be worth €1 million.
The dispute arose after the tenant, Bewley’s Cafe Grafton Street Ltd, entered into an agreement in 2020 with its parent, Bewley’s Ltd, to transfer ownership of the windows, and certain other assets, to it. The parent then granted the tenant a licence to continue to use the windows in the cafe.
RGRE challenged the validity of that purported transfer.
The High Court ruled that four windows − known as the Four Orders, as they depict four orders of classical architecture − belonged to RGRE. The other two − known as the Swan Yard windows, as they overlooked this yard − belonged to Bewley’s.
RGRE appealed and the three-judge Court of Appeal found, in a 2-1 decision, that all six belonged to RGRE.
Bewley’s sought and got a further appeal to the Supreme Court on grounds including that the case raised issues of general public importance and significant and complex issues of law relating to fixtures.
On Wednesday, a five-judge Supreme Court upheld the appeal court’s decision.
Judge Maurice Collins, on behalf of the Supreme Court, said, among other things, that the tenant accepted the burden of proof was on it to establish as a matter of probability that it paid for the windows.
This could also be established as a probability that the tenant is to be regarded as having done so on the basis that the payments in discharge of the Harry Clarke account were made by Bewley’s founder, Ernest Bewley, on its behalf.
Bewley’s had failed to discharge its burden of proof on this issue, he said. That was, as the tenant accepted, fatal in itself to any claim of ownership by it.
In relation to the difference between the High Court and Court of Appeal decisions over the two Swan Yard windows, Collins agreed with the Court of Appeal finding.
He said the Swan Yard windows are “part and parcel” of the premises to the same extent as the Four Orders and are not fixtures capable of removal.
The Ronan Group issued a statement afterwards welcoming the decision saying it agreed with “our long-held belief” that the six windows are part of the fabric of the building.
Group chief executive Rory Williams said: “We should never have been forced to go through the High Court, Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court to recover what was always self-evidently our property.
“We are happy now to move forward in our relationship with Bewley’s Café in the knowledge that visitors to Grafton Street will continue to enjoy these magnificent works of art in their proper setting in perpetuity.”
A spokesperson for Bewley’s said: “We are disappointed with today’s judgment. Our wish to transfer the Harry Clarke stained glass artworks into public ownership through a donation to a suitable institution can now no longer be fulfilled.”