The High Court has refused an application by Teresa Barrington seeking the return of a warehouse at Oldenway Commercial Park in Ballybrit, Galway, which she and her husband Seán say was wrongfully taken from them in April 2025.
The couple were registered owners of the warehouse from 2003 and operated a flooring business there. A charge in favour of Ulster Bank was later transferred to Promontoria. In December 2022 the charge was cancelled and MRCS Ltd was registered as full owner of the property with absolute title.
The Barringtons dispute the validity of that transfer and have brought wider proceedings alleging, among other matters, constitutional violations and defects in the mortgage, receivership and sale. They also challenge the constitutionality of section 62(6) of the Registration of Title Act 1964.
MRCS took possession of the warehouse in the early hours of 9 April 2025. Teresa Barrington described the entry as unlawful and forceful. The court found, however, that MRCS was the registered legal owner at the time. It held that an owner could use force to enter its own unoccupied commercial property by cutting through barriers where no landlord-and-tenant situation existed.
Mr Justice Jordan said the plaintiffs' contention that Ulster Bank's 2011 demand effectively cancelled their repayment obligations was not persuasive. He also found no cogent evidence supporting repeated allegations of fraud surrounding MRCS's registration.
The judge held that the Barringtons had not established the strong case required for an interlocutory injunction. Even if they had, damages would be an adequate remedy for loss relating to the commercial property, their undertaking to compensate MRCS if the injunction proved wrongful appeared of limited value because of their financial circumstances, and their delay in advancing the substantive case counted against them.
The court therefore set aside an interim order granted in April 2025 and refused all relief sought in the interlocutory motion. The underlying plenary proceedings remain unresolved.