On 24 May, Dibella Rest-aurant opened its doors to the public. But just nine weeks later, the court was told that Flynn, apparently relying on the dictates of the lease agreement, used a key to enter the property and took complete possession of the restaurant 21 days after the rent was due. Mennad, Fatima Zohra-Azizi and their employees were then excluded from entering the premises.
The next day, the proprietors handed a cheque for €11,000 to Flynn’s auctioneers, covering three months’ rent including arrears, but Flynn refused to accept this, the court heard. Instead, he decided to run the restaurant himself, using the original equipment and facilities owned by the couple. He also appointed the couple’s restaurant manager Claudia Pascau, originally from Romania, as his caretaker.
To date the restaurant is still trading as Dibella, but the original proprietors are not involved.
In August 2003, Mennad and Zohra-Azizi’s company sued Flynn and Pascau in the Circuit Court in Mullingar, seeking damages and repossession of the restaurant. Unfortunately, Flynn died before the hearing of the Circuit Court case. His wife Catherine Murphy-Flynn, also a solicitor, was substituted as defendant representing his estate.
The case was heard at the Circuit Court from 16–18 November 2004, with the court finding against Rayan Rest-aurant Limited. The Supreme Court heard that a year prior to this judgement, the couple were ordered to lodge the €11,000 cheque with the Circuit Court, and that this money has yet to be returned to them.
It was also heard that Murphy-Flynn made a counterclaim in the Circuit Court which was accepted. The court declared that the lease had been lawfully decided and awarded costs against Mennad and Zohra-Azizi and their company.
In 2005, the couple appealed to the High Court against the Circuit Court ruling, but the case was struck out after they were unable to produce the approximately €100,000 security bond requested by the court. The couple then started a fresh High Court case on the same issue, dropping Pascau and adding themselves as plaintiffs instead of their company, but this second case was also struck out.
In 2006, Mennad and Zohra-Azizi appealed to the Supreme Court, which finally heard their case on 4 February 2009. Judgement was delivered in favour of the plaintiffs on 27 March.
