The High Court has struck out Brendan O’Rourke’s amended defence and counterclaim in Ulster Bank Ireland DAC’s proceedings over Furness Hall, and entered judgment for the bank on its claim for an injunction restraining occupation of the property.
Mr Justice Brian O’Moore made the orders on 30 November 2023. The case concerns Furness Hall in Furness, Naas, County Kildare. Ulster Bank’s proceedings began in 2012. The bank’s claim for an injunction alleged that the defendants were trespassing on or otherwise occupying the mortgaged property.
O’Rourke’s defence and counterclaim asserted an interest in Furness Hall and sought orders preventing the bank from entering or interfering with the property and removing him. The judgment records that O’Rourke had previously raised the same substantive issues in separate equity proceedings. Those claims were dismissed by the High Court after a hearing involving 23 days of evidence, and the Court of Appeal later dismissed his appeals, including an appeal concerning an interlocutory injunction in the bank proceedings.
The bank applied to strike out O’Rourke’s defence and counterclaim and sought final judgment on the injunction relief in its statement of claim. O’Moore accepted that the court’s inherent jurisdiction allowed it to prevent a litigant from raising again issues already conclusively rejected in other litigation. He found that O’Rourke’s current pleaded case replicated the case advanced in the earlier equity proceedings, and that the issues had been found to be without merit by the High Court and Court of Appeal.
The order grants the bank the injunction relief sought against O’Rourke. It does not determine the merits of Mountview Construction (UK) Limited’s defence and counterclaim. The judgment says the company had been struck off the register in 2020, but its claims had not been determined by a court and it might be restored. The court therefore stayed Mountview’s prosecution of its counterclaim. The bank did not intend to pursue its claim against Mountview, so the judge considered a stay of that claim unnecessary.
The bank sought no costs order against either defendant in respect of the application or proceedings, and the judge agreed. He said this did not disturb any existing costs orders. The judgment also records that O’Rourke was an undischarged bankrupt and that the Official Assignee did not oppose the orders. The court made the orders to bring the litigation to an end at High Court level.