The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a married couple seeking to overturn the High Court's refusal to set aside an earlier order made in litigation over an industrial property in County Galway.
Teresa and Sean Barrington had been registered owners of the property from 2003. A charge was later transferred to Promontoria (Oyster) DAC, and MRCS Limited was registered as full owner in December 2022. The Barringtons dispute the lawfulness of events leading to that transfer and issued High Court proceedings in May 2024.
Their appeal concerned a narrower procedural issue. After Mr Justice Nolan refused them an interlocutory injunction in June 2024, they applied under Order 124 of the Rules of the Superior Courts to have his proceedings and order set aside for alleged irregularity. Mr Justice Twomey rejected that application in March 2025.
Ms Justice Butler, delivering the Court of Appeal judgment, held that Order 124 deals with procedural irregularities in ongoing litigation and does not provide a route for one High Court judge to overturn another judge's judgment or order. The appropriate remedy for dissatisfaction with Mr Justice Nolan's ruling had been an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
The court also rejected the Barringtons' specific complaints about the June 2024 hearing. It found that Mr Justice Nolan had correctly treated much of Teresa Barrington's affidavits as legal argument rather than evidence because they did not set out the material facts needed to support the injunction application. He had repeatedly offered the couple an adjournment to file a proper factual affidavit, but they chose to proceed.
The court also found no unfairness in accepting a late, unfiled affidavit from the opposing side on a solicitor's undertaking to file it, particularly as the Barringtons had been offered an adjournment to consider it.
The appeal was dismissed. The sixth and seventh defendants were provisionally awarded their appeal costs, while a separate hearing was left to decide the Barringtons' challenge to costs awarded in the High Court to the first five defendants.