The High Court has barred James Osborne from instituting further proceedings concerning lands recorded as Folio 62501F in County Wexford unless he first obtains leave of the court.
Mr Justice Nolan made the Isaac Wunder order in a supplemental judgment delivered on 18 June 2024. The judgment followed an earlier decision, delivered on 14 May, striking out Osborne’s proceedings against Gorey Business Park (Ramstown) Limited as frivolous and vexatious and bound to fail. The earlier decision concerned the same lands and had found that the proceedings should not have been issued without High Court permission. It also treated the Land Registry record of ownership as conclusive.
The defendant had sought an Isaac Wunder order. The judge invited Osborne to give an undertaking not to bring further proceedings about the lands, noting that an earlier judgment had found he had given such an undertaking in previous litigation. Osborne declined. The parties then made written and oral submissions.
Osborne argued, among other things, that further proceedings should be restricted only if they were against the same parties as the earlier cases. Nolan rejected that position, citing authorities permitting orders tied to property or subject matter, including in some circumstances where proposed defendants had not yet brought proceedings.
The judge said there had been five sets of proceedings concerning the original debt and the lands, including three brought by Osborne. He also referred to two other cases in which Osborne had been a party. In the court’s view, issues concerning the land map and common areas could have been raised in those earlier cases and had been determined. Nolan considered there were strong grounds to believe Osborne would continue litigating the land’s ownership without an order.
The order concerns proceedings by Osborne relating to the specified lands. The judgment said it did not prevent him from bringing a legitimate case: the leave requirement would allow the President of the High Court, or a nominated judge, to consider proposed proceedings before they are instituted. Osborne’s daughters were mentioned as having pending applications to register a lis pendens over the lands, but they were not parties, and the judge made no order concerning them.