SINGER Van Morrison was wrongly denied the right to a jury trial in a forthcoming defamation battle with former health minister Robin Swann, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan backed the musician's challenge to having his action on the handling of Covid-19 restrictions in Northern Ireland determined by a judge alone.
But with Sir Van also defending a separate lawsuit brought by Mr Swann, there remains uncertainty over how the two cases will ultimately be dealt with.
Both claims centre on conflicting views about how the former minister responded to the pandemic.
Mr Swann issued defamation proceedings after Sir Van chanted he was "very dangerous" during a dinner at Belfast's Europa Hotel in June 2021.
In a separate action, Sir Van is suing Mr Swann and the Department of Health over an earlier opinion piece he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine.
During a preliminary High Court hearing last year, Mr Swann's legal team sought trial by a judge sitting alone, while Sir Van's representatives pressed for the claims to be decided by a jury.
The court ordered both actions should be judge-only trials, based on a special reason that the two cases were interlinked.
Lawyers for Sir Van argued the judge who made that determination misdirected himself.
Ruling on the appeal, the Lady Chief Justice held the linkage between the two actions should not have been considered as a special reason.
She confirmed: "The judge therefore erred in aggregating the facts and issues in the two cases to deny the right to jury trial applied for in each case.
"The appeal succeeds on (that) ground."
With both trials not expected to begin until the autumn, attempts could be made to agree on some form of consolidated hearing.