The High Court has refused Sean and Veronica Farrell’s appeal seeking to strike out a third set of possession proceedings brought by Mars Capital Finance Ireland DAC.
Mars says the property was mortgaged under a March 2007 deed securing €2.2 million. The Farrells acknowledge receiving the money but dispute that it was advanced under the loan offer and mortgage relied upon by Mars. They have made no mortgage repayments since 2011. The judgment records arrears, with interest, of about €3.7 million.
The dispute has already produced two failed sets of possession proceedings.
In 2016, Mars commenced proceedings but it later emerged that the wrong mortgage charge had been transferred and that the plaintiff did not own the security when its demand letters issued. Those proceedings were struck out in 2019, with costs ultimately awarded to the Farrells.
Mars began again in 2021. That case ended after it emerged that demand letters had been issued in the name of the wrong Mars entity. A notice of discontinuance followed in February 2022, again carrying a costs obligation.
The Farrells argued that bringing possession proceedings for a third time was an abuse of process and that the matter was barred by res judicata, the rule preventing issues already finally decided from being litigated again.
Ms Justice Bolger rejected both arguments. She said neither earlier case produced a judgment on the merits or a final determination of Mars’s underlying possession claim. Mistaken factual foundations in the earlier proceedings did not, by themselves, amount to abuse of process.
The judge also noted that Mars had addressed the earlier defects and that the parties’ remaining dispute over previous costs concerned the amount due rather than an outright refusal to pay.
The current proceedings were therefore not frivolous, vexatious or bound to fail. The validity of the 2007 loan agreement remains a live issue for the trial judge.
The appeal was dismissed and the Circuit Court’s refusal to strike out the case was affirmed.