The High Court has struck out a motion brought by Joseph and Katherine Corcoran concerning receiver Ken Fennell and a property at 6 Glenair Manor, Delgany, after finding that every substantive issue raised by the application had already been decided in the main litigation.
The Corcorans issued the motion in December 2020 in proceedings brought by Mr Fennell. They sought declarations that he had not been validly appointed receiver over all the assets of Eassda Ireland Ltd or over the Glenair Manor site.
They also sought to strike out two of Mr Fennell’s claims: one asserting that a 2005 building agreement between Eassda Ireland Ltd and the Corcorans had ended, and another asserting that a 2005 contract for the sale of the Delgany site had ended.
The motion was eventually adjourned to the trial of the wider plenary proceedings. After it had been issued, the parties were permitted to amend their pleadings. The Corcorans delivered an extensively amended defence in March 2022.
Mr Justice O’Moore said both sides subsequently accepted that the issues raised by the motion had become part of the pleaded case to be decided at trial.
Those matters were then determined in the court’s substantive judgment delivered in December 2024. The judge said that judgment addressed both challenges to Mr Fennell’s appointment. It also decided in favour of the Promontoria interests on the building agreement and found that the contract for sale of the land was at an end.
The court therefore held that there was nothing left for the separate motion to determine. It was formally struck out.
No separate order for costs was made on the motion because, according to the judge, it had generated no additional costs before him. The Promontoria interests had already been awarded their costs of the relevant actions and applications.
The ruling does not reopen the December 2024 findings. It deals only with the procedural fate and costs of the now-spent 2020 motion.