The Supreme Court has awarded costs to the fourth and eighteenth defendants in proceedings brought by Vincent Keaney and ordered that a lis pendens connected with the case be vacated.
In a ruling delivered on 16 July 2021, the Court said the orders applied solely to the fourth and eighteenth defendants, Michael Nolan and Julia Nolan. The other parties named in the case title were not involved at this stage.
The matter returned to the Court as part of efforts to finalise older proceedings in which final orders remained outstanding. At a hearing on 14 April 2021, a solicitor for the two defendants sought their costs and an order vacating a lis pendens filed in respect of certain properties because of the proceedings.
Keaney did not appear at that hearing. The Court indicated it was minded to make the requested orders, but gave him an opportunity to explain why they should not be made. He sent written submissions and addressed the Court when the matter was listed again on 15 July. The defendants’ solicitor repeated the application.
The Court said Keaney’s arguments repeated accusations made in the proceedings, which had been rejected by the High Court and the Supreme Court on appeal. It said all issues had been finally determined in two earlier Supreme Court judgments, in 2015 and 2017, and that the outcomes were against Keaney.
On that basis, the Court said there was no reason to depart from the usual approach that costs follow the event. It awarded the fourth and eighteenth defendants their costs of the appeal and affirmed any previous orders concerning their costs.
The Court also directed that the lis pendens be vacated under section 123 of the Land and Conveyancing Reform Act 2009. The new order superseded an earlier order concerning the lis pendens, which the Court said could be regarded as no longer in force. The ruling does not specify the properties concerned.