The High Court granted Patrick O’Donnell and Martin Walsh an injunction restraining Janice O’Brien from re-entering 28 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, after finding her return to the property was trespass. The court also dismissed her counterclaim, which sought to set aside a deed and two contracts and claim damages for breach of contract.
The dispute arose from linked property transactions agreed in 2007. O’Brien sold her home at 28 Clontarf Road to the plaintiffs and people associated with them, and bought Apartment 3 at Glenbrian Hall on Howth Road. Under a memorandum signed in August 2007, the Clontarf Road property was priced at €785,000, the apartment at €450,000, and O’Donnell agreed to pay O’Brien a €125,000 deposit. She was also to receive a further cash balance. The court noted disagreement over whether the arrangement was an exchange or two linked sales.
Justice Birmingham concluded that, despite the link between the transactions, there was a distinct contract for the sale of 28 Clontarf Road. The court relied on the contracts’ different parties, a condition linking their completion, and evidence from O’Brien’s former solicitor. The sale of the Clontarf Road property had closed, the judge found.
O’Brien argued that the properties were meant to be exchanged simultaneously and that the deed for her former home should have been held pending delivery of title to the apartment. She also complained that the apartment was damp and that she had not received good title. She and her daughters gave evidence about the effect of the apartment’s condition; engineers called by both sides disagreed about the cause of the problems. The judge found that not all could be attributed to a conservatory O’Brien had built, and said some appeared to date from construction.
The transfer of the apartment had been delayed by outstanding documents and the failure of a solicitor acting for the vendors to complete work promised under an undertaking. The judge described the delays as entirely unsatisfactory. But after the solicitors newly instructed for the vendors supplied the outstanding documents and revised the lease to record intervening sales, the judge concluded that O’Brien had received good, marketable title.
O’Brien and family members re-entered 28 Clontarf Road in April 2009. The judge found there was no justification for doing so: any grievance about the Glenbrian transaction did not entitle her to occupy the former home. The injunction prevents a repetition of that entry. The court made no finding that O’Brien had a valid claim against Catherine O’Donnell, who was not a party to the proceedings.