The Court of Appeal has refused an application by Majella Rippington and Shaun Rippington to extend the time for appealing an order appointing a solicitor to administer the estate of Celine Murphy.
The order, made by the High Court on 23 July 2012 under section 27(7) of the Succession Act 1965, allowed solicitor Anne Stephenson to obtain a grant of administration pendente lite. Her tasks were to gather and preserve the estate’s assets, pay its debts and funeral expenses, and discharge a mortgage on a property owned by Ms Murphy.
Ms Stephenson completed those tasks. The High Court revoked the grant on 21 July 2014 at her request. The applicants’ motion seeking extra time to appeal the original appointment order was issued on 31 July 2017.
In a judgment delivered on 19 December 2017, Mr Justice Michael Peart said the evidence showed that Ms Rippington had formed an intention to appeal shortly after the 2012 order. Her email to counsel two days after the hearing expressed dissatisfaction, and she later unsuccessfully sought a stay of the order.
But the court found no explanation for why the applicants did not appeal within the prescribed period or seek to appeal sooner than 2017. The judge said the five-year delay was an insuperable obstacle to extending time.
The applicants disputed that they had validly consented to the appointment. The judgment records that their counsel told the High Court they agreed to the order, and that a transcript confirmed it was made on a consensual basis. Counsel’s written report said that Ms Rippington eventually agreed after the proposed arrangement was explained to her and discussed with the other plaintiffs.
The court also found that an appeal would be moot because the administrator had completed her work and the grant had been revoked. It further concluded that the applicants had advanced no arguable ground of appeal. The court refused the application for an extension of time; it did not determine a substantive appeal against the 2012 order.