By Owen Reid
The High Court has allowed proceedings by Tipperary farmer John O'Sullivan challenging a land transaction and subsequent settlement with Ronald Stuart Weisz to continue.
Weisz had asked the court to vacate a lis pendens registered by O'Sullivan over disputed property, arguing that the proceedings had been brought and pursued in bad faith. A lis pendens is a formal notice that litigation may affect ownership or other rights in land.
The dispute arose from loans and property transactions involving several County Tipperary folios. O'Sullivan originally borrowed from Wise Finance Company Limited in 1997 and secured the borrowing over three properties. After he defaulted, an order for possession was made by consent in July 2000.
In August 2001, O'Sullivan agreed to sell the charged lands to Weisz for IR£165,000, with options allowing him to repurchase them at higher prices within specified periods. O'Sullivan later alleged that the lands were then worth about IR£500,000.
He commenced proceedings in December 2002 seeking to undo the sale. Those proceedings were compromised in January 2003. Under that settlement, the litigation was to be discontinued, the lis pendens removed and one of the Tipperary folios was to be sold back to O'Sullivan for €50,000, subject to timing and interest provisions.
O'Sullivan then brought the present proceedings. He alleges that both the 2001 agreement and the 2003 settlement were procured by duress or undue influence, or alternatively amounted to unconscionable bargains. Those allegations have not been determined.
Finnegan P. held that a consent settlement can in principle be set aside on grounds including duress, which can extend to economic duress. The judge said he was not assessing the strength of O'Sullivan's case at this stage, but was satisfied that the pleaded case was one that could succeed.
The court therefore declined to treat the proceedings as an abuse of process and directed that related applications to add further parties should progress promptly, with the case to be judicially managed to avoid further delay.