The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by Majella Rippington and Shaun Rippington to extend the time for appealing a 2012 High Court order concerning the estate of Celine Murphy.
The application, issued in July 2017, sought permission to appeal more than five years after Mr Justice O’Neill made the order in the probate list. The order appointed an independent solicitor, Anne Stephenson, as administrator pendente lite while a will dispute was pending. It authorised her to gather and preserve the estate’s assets, pay debts including funeral expenses, and discharge a mortgage on the deceased’s property.
The Court of Appeal said the applicants had not shown that they formed a bona fide intention to appeal within the time allowed. The court also found no adequate explanation for the delay, no mistake or other legitimate basis for extending time, and no arguable ground of appeal.
The July 2012 order was made in substance by consent, the court said, after the applicants were represented by lawyers. A transcript of the hearing and correspondence from their then counsel undermined their claims of procedural irregularities and misrepresentation, the judgment said. The court considered the application for the independent administrator prudent and necessary to preserve the estate and address the mortgage liability.
The administrator’s grant issued in October 2012 and was revoked by the High Court in July 2014 after she had completed her obligations. The Court of Appeal said a challenge to the earlier order was therefore moot and would serve no meaningful purpose.
The applicants had also included a challenge to the 2012 order in a later appeal concerning the will dispute. In November 2015, the Court of Appeal struck out that part of the appeal. That order was not appealed, and the court said the current application was effectively an attempt to reopen it.
The court dismissed the application to extend time to file an ordinary notice of appeal. It did not determine the separate appeal concerning the validity of the will in this application.