The High Court refused two motions brought by June Smith in a dispute over a farm in Carn, Portarlington, and made orders restricting future litigation about the land and the assistance of her McKenzie Friend, William Murphy.
In a judgment delivered on 25 October 2017, Mr Justice Twomey found that the motions were an abuse of process. He said the proceedings sought to prevent Ballenline Limited, which had bought the farm from a receiver for ACC, from exercising its ownership rights. The court’s account was that earlier litigation had established that Smith had no ownership interest in the farm and that challenges to its sale had failed.
The immediate dispute followed Smith’s September 2017 plenary summons against several defendants, including Ballenline. She had obtained an interim injunction ex parte from Mr Justice Barrett during the High Court vacation sittings, restraining a company identified in the injunction as “Ballantine Limited” from trespassing on the farm. The injunction was later stayed pending the October hearing.
Twomey J said Smith had not disclosed material facts to Barrett J, including Ballenline’s ownership and a 2015 injunction permanently restraining Smith from entering or attending the farm. The judgment also said she had presented a pending Court of Appeal matter as relevant to the purchaser’s right to occupy the land, although that appeal concerned removal of a lis pendens and costs, not ownership. Smith told Barrett J she was seeking to protect “my property”; Twomey J concluded that she had misled him by omission and misrepresentation. These are findings made in this judgment.
The court also considered a motion by Smith seeking, among other relief, to set aside the stay and to join solicitor Michael Collins as a defendant. The judgment described the claims against Collins as a renewed challenge to matters addressed in earlier proceedings. Both motions were refused.
The court expanded the July 2017 Isaac Wunder order. Smith, anyone connected with her who has notice of the order, and anyone acting in concert with her are restrained from bringing motions, applications or proceedings in any court or forum relating to the specified farm lands without prior leave of the President of the High Court. Proposed defendants must be notified of any leave application. Proceedings issued without leave are to be treated as void and of no effect, and the High Court Central Office is to be notified. The judgment said the order requires Smith to seek consent; it does not remove access to the courts.
On its own motion, the court also disqualified Murphy from acting as a McKenzie Friend or otherwise assisting or advising anyone in proceedings without the President’s consent, and directed that the Central Office be notified. The judgment described this as a restriction subject to consent, rather than a complete, permanent removal of the privilege.