Published Tuesday, 10 January 2012
On Tuesday, senior judges held that Loreto Grammar had no legitimate expectation that a publicly financed new school would be constructed on its exiting site in Omagh.
But the court also quashed a decision by the Department of Education to categorise a capital project submitted by Loreto as non-compliant with its sustainable schools policy.
Officials were ordered to reconsider the economic appraisal assessment in light of the findings.
The judgment represents a partial victory for the department in its challenge to a High Court verdict that an unjustifiable breach of trust occurred.
In March last year a judge had held that the conduct of former Minister Caitriona Ruane and officials in the case amounted to an abuse of power.
The case centres on £14.6m of investment Loreto Grammar School believed was promised in 2004 for a new build through a public private partnership.
It was announced by the then direct-rule minister Barry Gardiner as part of a major expansion plan for schools across Northern Ireland.
Since then, however, proposals have been advanced for a shared education campus on the site of the old Lisanelly military barracks.
In summer 2010 Loreto was included in eight schools rejected for new building plans for non-compliance with policy.
The High Court had found that the conduct, delay and inactivity of the then Minister and Department officials frustrated the legitimate expectation that a new Loreto Grammar School, financed by public funding, would be built on the existing site by 2010 at the latest.
That outcome was contested in the Court of Appeal in front of a three-member judicial panel.
Delivering their decision on Tuesday, Lord Justice Girvan stated that the course of documentation and events in the case did not point to a conclusion that the school had been led to believe it had an assured outcome in relation to funding.
He said: "Neither the school nor the department by their statements or actions evidenced any belief or understanding that there was a binding enforceable promise to fund a new build school on the existing site in a particular way or for a particular sum.
"In the result we conclude that the school cannot rely on a substantive legitimate expectation such as that for which the School contends."
The judge said the decision had been reached with regret.
He added that trust in the system is "undermined" when an outcome is frustrated by long delays by the relevant department and the introduction of "additional hoops and policies through which the parties must pass".
The Court also ruled the decision to treat Loreto's economic appraisal as non-compliant was flawed.
Lord Justice Girvan held there was a failure to clearly indicate to the school what was expected of it in relation to an assessment of the Lisanelly option.
He added: "Accordingly the decision to designate the School as non-compliant must be quashed and the department must accordingly reconsider the matter in the light of this judgment."