GP wins order to keep running clinic amid case
A SOUTH Dublin GP has won a High Court order allowing her to keep running her clinic, while a legal battle continues over €55,000 in allegedly unpaid rent.
Dr Fiona Grant was granted an interlocutory injunction preventing her landlord, Gradual Investments, from entering the Healthcare Clinic at The Village, Stepaside. She had told the court that she had ongoing obligations to her patients who attend the practice, and needed to continue providing medical services to them.
In a judgment published yesterday, Judge Niamh Hyland said the landlord had claimed there had been a breach of an agreement made in February 2016, which allowed for a reduced rent on a sliding scale up until July 2019.
She said the landlord had claimed summary judgment for over €275,000 in respect of a claim for unpaid rent, interest on unpaid rent and on the arrears, service charges and expenses which it alleged it had incurred.
Summary judgment was refused last July, and the case was sent forward for a full trial.
Dr Grant said she received notice in October that the landlord intended to re-enter the premises, and treat the lease as terminated.
Four breaches of the lease were claimed in the notice, she said, including monthly rather than quarterly rent payments, a shortfall in rent of €55,800, non-payment of service charges of €10,500 and the presence of subtenants without the consent of the landlord.
Dr Grant told the court that rent of just under €3,950 has been paid monthly since it was reviewed, and that the rent has always been paid in accordance with the relevant agreement. She said if the landlord were allowed to cancel the lease, it would interfere with the High Court proceedings and damage her character and reputation.
Judge Hyland said if Dr Grant were forced to vacate, it would cause disruption ‘not just to her but to her patients’. The judge granted the injunction, allowing Dr Grant to continue running her clinic, pending the trial of the action.