The High Court has struck out Pat Gleeson’s claims against Start Mortgages DAC and AB Wolfe Solicitors, finding that his pleadings did not set out the facts needed to support a reasonable cause of action.
Mr Justice Conor Dignam delivered the judgment on 4 July 2024. The application was brought by Start and AB Wolfe under Order 19, rule 28 of the Rules of the Superior Courts and the court’s inherent jurisdiction. Gleeson did not attend the hearing, despite being served and given an adjourned date. He filed no replying affidavit and did not indicate that he wished to amend his pleadings.
The proceedings followed an earlier Kildare Circuit Court case seeking possession of land in Folio KE23778F, County Kildare. The Circuit Court ordered possession in favour of Start Mortgages Limited in October 2016 and refused Gleeson’s later application to vacate that order. He did not appeal either decision. An execution order issued in September 2019. Start had been registered as owner of the mortgage and charge in 2015, following an assignment from Bank of Scotland PLC.
Gleeson’s later claim included allegations about the cross-border merger through which the mortgage had transferred, the defendants’ handling of his private data and alleged breaches of legal and constitutional obligations. The judge said the claim largely consisted of assertions and requests for declarations, without a factual account explaining what the defendants had allegedly done. That lack of pleaded facts was sufficient to strike out the claims under Order 19, rule 28. The judge said the case would require an entire repleading, and Gleeson had not sought that opportunity.
The judge also dismissed the claims under the court’s inherent jurisdiction. The challenge to Start’s title to the mortgage amounted to an attempt to go behind the final Circuit Court possession order on a point that could have been raised in those earlier proceedings. The judge found that to be a collateral attack and an abuse of process. The data claim was also dismissed: it was too unclear to identify what use of private data was alleged.
The court did not decide whether the cross-border merger regulations had already been upheld in Freeman v Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Limited; the judge said it was unnecessary to determine that submission. The order struck out the plaintiff’s claims against Start and AB Wolfe. The judgment did not determine the separate claims against the other defendants.