Early trial date urged as son-in-law sues 89-year-old in property row
At the Clare Registrar’s court, Derek Sheahan BL, counsel for Colette Holmes, applied that the court action being taken by Bill Hanly against Mrs Holmes and two of her sons be assigned an early trial date as the woman is elderly.
Mr Sheahan handed a letter into court from Mrs Holmes’ GP “underlining the distress that this is causing her — the plaintiff, Mr Hanly is her son-in-law”.
Mr Sheahan said that Mrs Holmes’s late brother-in- law, Gordon Holmes, who died in 2011, was a former chairman of the former Garda Complaints Board and the Parole Board and headed up what is still the largest legal firm in the Mid-West region, Holmes O’Malley Sexton.
The late Marguerite Hanly was Mr Hanly’s wife, and daughter of Colette Holmes. The mother-of-three died in June 2013.
However, Limerick-based auctioneer Mr Hanly of Whitehall, Ballysimon Rd, Killonan, Limerick, is now suing Mrs Holmes of The Park Retirement Village, Castletroy, Limerick, and her two sons, Alan Holmes of Serpentine Park, Serpentine Avenue, Ballsbridge, D4, and Paul Holmes of Temple Park Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin. The dispute concerns a home owned by Mrs Holmes in Kilkee.
Mr Hanly is suing the members of the Holmes family on his own behalf and in his role as executor of the estate of his late wife.
Mr Sheahan asked that Mr Wallace list the case for December but avoid December 15 as that is Mrs Holmes’s 90th birthday.
Mr Wallace recommended that parties in the case enter mediation and listed the case for December 13.
