Court ‘deliberately’ misled to secure orders restraining sale of Offaly land, judge says

The High Court had been “seriously and deliberately” misled by applicants who secured an order restraining the sale of Co Offaly land, a judge has said.

Mr Justice Brian O’Moore said his colleague who granted the order last July had not been told of a campaign of trespass and harassment by applicant Miriam Bracken’s husband, Colm Bracken.

The motivation of Ms Bracken, representing the interests of her two sons as beneficiaries in their late uncle’s will, in seeking the orders was “completely wrong-headed”, the judge said in ruling the original orders should not be extended.

The dispute arose out of the deaths and wills of brothers Tom and Larry Bracken, who were uncles of Colm Bracken, of Moy Glas Park, Lucan, Dublin.

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Tom Bracken, who died in March 2016, left everything to Larry Bracken. However, as Larry Bracken had predeceased him, in 2014, Tom Bracken’s estate fell to be administered in accordance with the rules of intestate succession, the judge said.

Larry’s will bequeathed his house contents, livestock and lands to Colm Bracken, for his lifetime and thereafter to Colm and Miriam Bracken’s two sons.

The personal representative of Larry Bracken’s estate, represented in court by John Donnelly SC, made a claim against the personal representative of Tom Bracken’s estate, who entered a robust defence. The action settled shortly before it was due to be heard, and was approved, due to the involvement of Miriam and Colm Bracken’s minor children, by Mr Justice O’Moore last December.

The judge said the settlement acknowledged Larry’s estate holds a two-thirds beneficial interest in the ownership of the lands in Kilclare, Co Offaly, while Tom’s estate holds the other third.

However, Paul McDonnell, solicitor for the representative of Tom’s estate, said Colm Bracken “repeatedly requested and indeed demanded” that the Kilclare lands would be sold privately to him or would be severed to ensure he obtained a self-selected portion. The representative “quite properly” opted for a public sale, the judge said.

Mr McDonnell said Colm Bracken had changed or interfered with locks at the gates and house on the lands, blocked entrances to sheds on the lands, harassed workers on the lands and refused to remove his jeep from the lands.

Threatened with legal action, Colm Bracken, through his solicitors, gave an “unequivocal undertaking” that he will not attend the property pending further agreement. There were subsequent incidents at the site that appeared to be a breach of this undertaking, the judge said.

Last July Miriam Bracken applied for High Court orders preventing an auction of the lands proceeding that day.

The judge refused to extend the orders due to the “active misleading” of his colleague, the lack of a serious issue to be tried, the “wrong-headed” motivation of the plaintiffs, and that the orders would frustrate the implementation of a court-approved settlement.

The judge acceded to an application from the administrator of Tom Bracken’s estate, represented by Micheál O’Connell SC and Vincent Nolan, for Ms Bracken’s wider case to be struck out against the estate as it is bound to fail.