The High Court has ruled that trustees of a Cavan bog trust were entitled to retain compensation paid after turf cutting ended at Cloughbally Upper bog.
Mr Justice Hogan delivered the judgment on 19 June 2013 in a construction summons brought by the trustees. The question before him was whether they could distribute compensation to people who had cut turf at Cloughbally Upper, or had to retain it. The court decided that first question in the trustees’ favour. Questions about whether the trust was charitable and whether the money could be applied cy-près were postponed by consent and were not decided in this judgment.
The trust originated in a 1921 deed concerning about 900 acres of bog land. It allowed defined beneficiaries to cut and save turf on land covered by the deed, under conditions and regulations set by the trustees. The court found that the beneficiaries’ rights were contractual licences to cut turf where the trustees directed, rather than interests or estates in land. They had no right to cut at a particular bank or bog.
Cloughbally Upper, near Mullagh, was designated a special area of conservation. The resulting restriction ended turf cutting there in 1999. The trustees agreed with the Minister to receive compensation instead of selling the bog. The agreement provided for IR£257,692, with a further €212,021 paid in 2006. By the end of February 2013, the trustees held just over €580,000 in total, though a trustee said some capital gains tax might ultimately be payable.
The defendants argued, in effect, that the money should benefit those who had cut turf at Cloughbally. The court noted that the compensation under Article 20 of the 1997 Regulations was for depreciation of an interest in land. It found that the trustees, as registered owners, had suffered that loss. The beneficiaries’ deed-based right to cut turf remained exercisable elsewhere, and the court heard evidence that Lislea bog could accommodate cutting for more than 100 years.
The court therefore held that the trustees were entitled to the compensation. It did not decide the deferred charitable-trust or cy-près questions.