Judge urges sides to move Rocca case on

THE judge hearing an action related to the privacy of the home of singer Van Morrison and his wife yesterday urged efforts be made over the weekend to move on the case which is set to go into its fifth day even though it was scheduled to take just two.

Mr Justice Michael Hanna made the recommendation when granting lawyers for Michelle Rocca time until Monday to reply to a newly submitted statement on behalf of her neighbours, Mary and Desmond Kavanagh, relating to trees which had been cut down during redevelopment of their home, Mount Alverno, which is next to the Morrisons’ Kilross House residence off the Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Dublin.

Earlier, the judge told lawyers for both sides he found their “squabbling” unedifying and urged them to “move on”.

Comments he made earlier in the week that this case was going to cost someone an “awful lot of money” were becoming sharper, the judge also said. Day-long talks between the parties on Wednesday failed to find a resolution.

In her High Court action, Ms Rocca says Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council did not validly issue a compliance with a planning permission order for the Kavanagh’s last September. She claims unauthorised work had been carried out at the Kavanagh property and that a tree planting landscape scheme was not in compliance with the permission.

At the start of day four yesterday, the court was told by Esmonde Keane SC, for the Kavanaghs, that he wished to file a new affidavit from his clients’ architect clarifying claims by Ms Rocca’s lawyer about trees which had already been felled in Mount Alverno. The court heard on Thursday that this had happened since last September, which was after the compliance order was made, but the trees in question had actually been cut down in August, Mr Keane said.

Eamon Galligan SC, for Ms Rocca, said he strongly objected to the new affidavit.

Ruling that the new affidavit could be filed, the judge said while it would be inconvenient to allow it, it would be unfair not to do so as it could take on some significance on the question of credibility at a later stage.