Man gets injunction stopping brother from trespassing

A Lahinch man has secured a High Court injunction restraining his brother from trespassing on a tiny sliver of land measuring 0.14 of an acre.

The wider dispute between Thomas Slattery and Joseph Slattery concerns a 4.5 acre field in Lahinch which contains the sliver of land that formed part of the now disused West Clare Railway line.

Proceedings in relation to the field have been the subject of six separate court cases referred to in court prompting High Court justice, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy to comment that the value of the legal costs over the 4.5 acre field “is extraordinary” when the value of the land is taken into account.

Ms Justice Murphy made her comment after dismissing Joseph Slattery’s claim on his brother’s field at Lahinch in two separate appeals to the High Court sitting in Ennis.

One of the cases in the dispute concerns the sliver of land which is not adequate to provide road frontage to a single home, the court was told.

Joseph Slattery of Ennistymon Rd, Lahinch, is now liable for the costs of the cases dismissed — including his brother’s legal bill — after counsel for Thomas Slattery, Gerry Kiely SC asked that Ms Justice Murphy make a costs order.

Counsel for Joseph Slattery, Caoilte O’Connor BL told the court there “is a lot of personal enmity” between the two brothers and asked that costs in the cases not be awarded against his client.

The elderly brothers come from a well-known north Clare family.

Ms Justice Murphy said: “These matters should not be allowed to drag on and persist on the most tenuous of basis and it is stemming from an unwillingness from Joseph Slattery to accept the reality that his parents transferred the ownership of this land as far back as 1981 to his brother.”

Mr Kiely also asked that Ms Justice Murphy make an Isaac Wunder order to prevent Joseph Slattery taking any further court action on the land.

Ms Justice Murphy said that she wouldn’t make such an order at this time, but did award costs against Joseph Slattery.

She said: “I am very conscious that this is a family matter - I am very conscious that behind this set of proceedings, there are other issues.”

She added, however, that so far “lots of chances have been given” to Joseph Slattery.

She said: “There have been two circuit court actions and two circuit appeals arising from 4.5 acres of land — that doesn’t augur well.

“It appears to me that one cannot come again and again before the court — not accept the orders of the court, when one order is made — attempt to litigate the same action by making another application on a different ground.”

Ms Justice Murphy said that if both matters were to be brought to a conclusion, the successful party in both sets of proceedings, Thomas Slattery, might show some forbearance in respect of costs.

Ms Justice Murphy struck out Joseph Slattery’s claim for adverse possession of the 0.14 acre sliver of land and granted Thomas Slattery an injunction against his brother restraining him from trespass upon or interference with the property.