The High Court has refused Timothy Joseph Daire permission to start fresh proceedings challenging an execution order for possession of lands in Co. Roscommon, holding that the proposed case was bound to fail.
Ms Justice Baker gave the ruling on 20 March 2014. The application followed an Isaac Wunder order made by Ms Justice Laffoy in July 2013, which barred Daire from bringing further proceedings against The Wise Finance Company Limited and Ronald Weisz without the court’s permission.
Daire sought to argue that the execution order, issued on 15 April 2013, was outside the six-year limit in Order 42, rule 23 of the Rules of the Superior Courts. The original High Court possession order had been made on 31 July 2006. The Supreme Court affirmed it on 21 May 2012, after Daire withdrew his appeal.
The court treated the proposed case as a challenge to the timing and validity of the execution order, rather than an attempt to reopen the final possession decision. Justice Baker said this was a new argument that had not been litigated before and was not, on that basis, frivolous or vexatious. The question was whether the claim was bound to fail.
She concluded that the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision was the operative date for calculating the six-year period. The High Court possession order had merged into the Supreme Court’s affirmation, she said, leaving no coherent argument that the 2013 execution order was out of time.
Justice Baker refused leave to commence the proposed proceedings. The ruling decided only the application for permission to bring that challenge; it did not set aside the possession order or the execution order.