The High Court has refused Tullagower Quarries Limited’s bid to reduce the land transferred to Whelan’s Limestone Quarries Limited in 2004, and to alter the Property Registration Authority’s (PRA) map for the land now registered to Lagan Bitumen Limited. The court was deciding the boundary and rectification issues only; any entitlement to a right of way may be considered at a further hearing.
The dispute concerns land in Tullagower, Co Clare. A 2003 contract and the 2004 transfer described 11.185 acres and included a right of way. The PRA’s current record for Folio CE52291F shows 12.72593 acres. Tullagower Quarries sought to have the transfer amended to 8.45 acres and to have a 2015 map attached, as well as to have the register maps altered.
The court heard that maps referred to in the transaction documents could not be found. It also received no information about responses to PRA queries in 2011 concerning the boundaries. Tullagower Quarries alleged that the transfer and registration did not reflect the brothers’ agreement and claimed that solicitors and others were responsible. The firms and bodies criticised in those claims were not represented at trial, and the judge made no finding on any potential negligence or other claims against them.
The judge was not convinced that the brothers had agreed, before or when the 2004 transfer was executed, to transfer less land than the deed described. He found that the evidence did not establish a common intention for different boundaries. The court also rejected the argument that a notice of the dispute registered before Lagan Bitumen acquired its interest affected the court’s application of the relevant registration law.
The judge said the alleged difference was not a minor mapping error and that the evidence did not establish a mistake that would justify rectification under section 31 of the Registration of Title Act 1964. The court refused the reliefs sought by Tullagower Quarries and refused to order rectification of the register or map for Folio CE52291F. It did not determine any right-of-way claim, which may be the subject of a further hearing.