The High Court has ordered Daniel Desmond Howe to vacate a property at 2 Friars Lough, Leighlinbridge, and not return while a receivership dispute proceeds to trial.
Mr Justice Brian O’Moore granted interlocutory injunctions on 30 May 2022 in favour of receiver Nicholas O’Dwyer. The orders also require Mr Howe to hand over keys and other access devices and codes. They remain in force only until trial; the judge refused to treat the motion as the trial of the action.
The property is subject to a 2008 mortgage created by Trevor Gillespie. The judgment says Mr Gillespie is its registered owner and that the mortgage interest was transferred to Pepper Finance Corporation (Ireland) DAC. Mr O’Dwyer was appointed receiver in December 2020.
The receiver’s evidence described visits by property agents who encountered people at the house and received little information about the occupation. Correspondence and an affidavit submitted on Mr Howe’s behalf asserted that he was a tenant and referred to an unnamed “host”, who was said to have received an interest in the property from Mr Gillespie in 2013. Mr Howe said he had never met Mr Gillespie. The judgment records that no documents supporting the alleged transfer were produced and that the host was not identified.
Mr Justice O’Moore found the claim to an interest in the property vague and unconvincing, and said there was no evidence establishing a right to occupy it. He accepted that continued occupation was impairing the receiver’s work and that damages might not be recoverable from Mr Howe. The judge considered the disruption of requiring Mr Howe to move, but said the evidence did not show that he or any dependants would be unable to find alternative accommodation. He allowed an eight-week stay from the hearing date, 23 May 2022, on the orders.
An earlier motion seeking broadly similar relief against Mr Howe had been struck out after the receiver’s replying affidavit was not served in time. The judge said that motion had been struck out without consideration of its merits and did not prevent the later motion.
The court did not decide the full action or the plaintiffs’ damages claim. It made no directions for an early trial, adjourning that issue generally with liberty to re-enter, and awarded Mr O’Dwyer the costs of this motion alone.