Three landowners have been awarded more than €10 million after a purchaser failed to complete a €10.73 million deal for development land on the outskirts of Tullow, County Carlow.
Paul Joyce, Liam Larkin and Susan Joyce had agreed in May 2007 to sell Declan O’Shea a 15.98-acre site, known in the proceedings as Plot B, for €10,734,356. Only a €100 deposit was paid.
The site was sold with planning permission forming part of a larger proposed development of 326 houses, six apartments and a crèche. However, access depended on a further phase of the Tullow Outer Relief Road.
After Mr O’Shea failed to complete the purchase, the High Court initially ordered specific performance in January 2009, meaning he was required to complete the contract. He did not comply. In June, the court replaced that remedy with damages.
Ms Justice Laffoy then had to decide how much the sellers had lost. She held that damages should be assessed by comparing the contract price with the land’s market value when the specific-performance order was dissolved on June 22, 2009.
Valuer John Dawson put Plot B’s value at €639,200, or €40,000 an acre. He described the Tullow property market as stagnant, with 211 newly built homes unsold locally and no development land sold in County Carlow during 2008 or 2009.
The access problem also weighed heavily. Phase 2 of the relief road had been postponed indefinitely after Carlow County Council failed to secure the necessary land. The court heard that Plot B was effectively landlocked and that the existing planning permission would expire in October 2011.
Ms Justice Laffoy accepted the €639,200 valuation. Deducting that figure and the €100 deposit from the contract price produced damages of €10,095,056.
A separate earlier judgment for €585,237.11 in interest for delayed completion remained in place.