The High Court has declared Anthony Kelleher the lawful owner of a small plot behind a garage at 33 Emerald Square in Dublin 8, rejecting Botany Weaving Mills Limited’s claim that it had acquired the land through adverse possession.
In a judgment delivered on 10 December 2008, Ms Justice Maureen H. Clark said the company had not established either the required adverse possession or more than 12 years of continuous exclusive occupation. The case came to the High Court on appeal from the Circuit Court. Although it began as an application by Kelleher for an injunction, it became a claim over ownership of the leasehold plot.
The land measures 31 feet by 11 feet and includes a lock-up garage and an open area behind it. Kelleher bought an assignment of the plot in September 2005 for €18,000, intending to park his truck and trailer there. When he tried to extend the garage by removing its rear wall, the company stopped the work, placed a skip on the plot and pushed his trailer back into the garage.
Botany Weaving said it had occupied the land exclusively for more than 12 years. Its director, Jonathan Hackett, testified that the company bought the former factory grounds in 1988 and cleared and landscaped them, with the area laid in grass by about 1989. He said he believed the company owned all the yard up to the Emerald Square wall and had not known anyone else claimed the plot.
The judge heard that Kelleher’s predecessors in title, Peter and Frank Lawlor, used the yard only occasionally to reach the rear of the garage while repairing its roof. The last such visits they recalled were between 1998 and 2002. The court found that Botany Weaving occupied the plot when Kelleher attempted the building work in 2005, but it was not satisfied the company had proved when the disputed area was cleared and grassed.
The court concluded that tidying and grassing the plot for the company’s own visual benefit and to reduce dumping did not, on these facts, show an intention to possess the land against its owners. The plot had no boundary separating it from the factory grounds, and the Lawlors’ sporadic access to repair the garage continued during the relevant period. The judge was not persuaded that the company’s use was inconsistent with the owners’ title.
The order declared Kelleher the lawful owner in the terms of his Civil Bill. The judgment also awarded him his costs.