Case No. IP-2014-000051

80.It is necessary to distinguish the various releases provided for in the Compromise Agreement. The Discharge Form is in the identical form of a document originally provided to Richard Burke by Oran together with the letter notifying him of his redundancy dated 18 November 2011. That accepts “€26,092 comprising notice, statutory redundancy, outstanding annual leave, ex-gratia payment and any monies owed by or to the company for termination of employment in full and final settlement of all statute and common law claims of every nature, type and kind whatsoever arising from my said former employment with the Company and the termination thereof by reason of my redundancy.” The Burke Release is an acknowledgment that payment of €26,092 is in “full and final settlement of all sums due and owing to me by Oran Pre-Cast Ltd whether arising by contract, common law and/or statute.” I accept Mr Harbottle’s submission that these two documents together are unambiguous. The former provides a discharge which is clearly defined in terms of claims arising from Richard Burke’s employment and termination by redundancy for consideration which is equivalent to sums due for “notice, statutory redundancy, outstanding annual leave and ex-gratia payment”. The latter releases all claims that Richard Burke has against Oran in consideration of that same sum. Without more, I accept that the reasonable person having all the background knowledge available to the parties would not consider that the parties meant those two documents to encompass claims that Oran had against Richard Burke outside the closely-defined scope, namely ‘arising from’ his employment and termination by redundancy. 81.However, there is more. Richard Burke refused to sign those two documents unless Oran also signed the Oran Release. The Oran Release is specifically expressed to be in consideration of “you compromising the amount due and owing to you on foot of [the Back Pay Judgment]”. It confirms that “Oran Pre-Cast Limited have no claim against you, Richard Burke, whether it be in contract, common law and/or statute”. This is a very concise but extremely wide-ranging release. The fact that it is bare and does not contain any assistive or explanatory text which one often sees in such clauses, and which can assist the court in defining the scope of the claims that the parties intended it to cover, means that the context in which the release was given becomes of particular importance. Per Lord Nicholls at paragraph 29 of