The High Court has dismissed proceedings brought by Gerry Burns against solicitors involved in the sale of a property at Bruce Manor, Arva, County Cavan, rejecting his claim that their use of his personal information breached the GDPR.
Mr Justice Nolan delivered judgment on 13 February 2026 after John J. Quinn & Co. LLP and solicitor Pauline Brady sought to have the claim struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action and being bound to fail.
Burns and his wife had purchased the property in the early 2000s with a Permanent TSB loan. He claimed that a later transfer of the mortgage to Start Mortgages was unlawful because he had not consented to it, and argued that subsequent processing of information connected with the loan and property was therefore also unlawful.
The property was later offered for sale through an online auction. The solicitors acted for the successful purchasers, carrying out conveyancing work including title enquiries, completion of the sale, payment of purchase money and assistance with registration of ownership.
Burns argued that use of his name, the property address and related details breached his data-protection rights and made allegations of criminal wrongdoing, including money laundering.
Nolan J rejected those arguments. He held that any processing of Burns’s information was incidental and necessary to the solicitors’ contractual and statutory duties and fell within several lawful bases under Article 6 of the GDPR.
The judge also found that the proceedings had an improper alternative purpose: interfering with completion of the property sale. Burns had separate proceedings challenging the mortgage transfers and powers of sale but had left those on hold while pursuing this case.
The court struck out and dismissed the proceedings, finding they could not be saved by amendment. A provisional costs order was indicated in favour of the successful solicitor defendants, subject to Burns applying within seven days for a costs hearing.