The High Court has ordered the Property Registration Authority to remove a caution registered by Mr Wymes against lands on Folio 28285 in County Cork, clearing a title obstacle identified in preparations for a court-directed sale.
In a judgment delivered on 10 October 2017, Mr Justice Max Barrett said there was no evidence before the court to justify keeping the caution on the folio. He found that letters written by Mr Wymes to Richard Wood could not, by themselves, bind another person, and that an alleged agreement concerning lands owned through Rockrohan Estate Limited did not make the company and its shareholder one legal entity.
The judge said the court had no evidence that exceptional circumstances justified treating Rockrohan Estate and Mr Wood as a single entity. Even if an order charged Mr Wood’s shares in the company, that would not make Mr Wymes an encumbrancer over the lands or give him priority over Ulster Bank’s interests.
Mr Wymes had registered the caution in 2014. In an affidavit, he said his claim arose from a judgment against Mr Wood, a judgment mortgage, a conditional order concerning Mr Wood’s shares, and an alleged agreement requiring his consent before certain land was sold. The judgment recorded that there was no evidence Mr Wood had an interest in the Folio Lands.
The lands have been subject to court-sale proceedings arising from a 1987 well-charging order in favour of Ulster Bank. After later proceedings and an appeal, the sale process resumed in 2015. In March 2017, the High Court gave Ulster Bank liberty to offer the lands for sale by private treaty. Court conveyancing counsel then advised that steps be taken to remove Mr Wymes’s caution before sale particulars and conditions could be settled. The judge said counsel’s advice was legally privileged and Mr Wymes was not entitled to see it.
The court also rejected Mr Wymes’s challenge to the guide price. It said he had no standing to comment on the valuation and noted that a letter from estate agent and valuer Lisney supported the price as a proper valuation.
Ulster Bank had also sought an order to remove a caution registered by an individual named Mr Thomas McCarthy. The judge did not make that order, saying the evidence suggested the caution would be removed without court intervention. He said a further application could be made if that changed.