Late judge's children go to court over property interests

A DISPUTE between the six children of the late judge Noel Ryan over the management of property assets acquired by their parents and themselves, previously valued at €15 million, has opened before the Commercial Court.

The action opened yesterday before Mr Justice Frank Clarke but was adjourned again in the afternoon for further talks. Later the judge agreed to adjourn it further to this morning but stressed it would go on unless it was settled.

The case is brought by four of the Ryan siblings – Declan Ryan, Sittingbourne, Kent, England; Marie McGovern, Foxrock, Dublin; Martin Ryan, Southern View, Baily, Co Dublin; and Irene Ryan, Stonepark Abbey, Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin – against their brother Oran Ryan, a solicitor, of Westminster Road, Foxrock, Dublin, and sister, Trinette Larkin, Countess Road, Killarney, Co Kerry.

The four have made allegations about how Oran Ryan managed a former family partnership which owned and managed several properties and have claimed, due to alleged acts or omissions by Oran Ryan and Trinette Larkin, they could not sell any of the properties.

All six were former members of a partnership known as the Ryan Rentals Partnership which was dissolved in October 2007 by Marie McGovern on notice to all members.

It began life as a trust in 1972 set up by Noel and Lorna Ryan and acquired properties for investment purposes at 16 and 17 Fitzwilliam Square; Olympia House, 61-63 Dame Street; Shamrock Chambers, Eustace Street; 4 Fitzwilliam Place including a mews at 4 Ladd Lane. It also held a family holiday home in Portnoo, Co Donegal, and a timeshare apartment in Lanzarote. There is a dispute as to whether another property at 5 Cogill’s Court, Temple Bar, formed part of the partnership.

Opening the case, Lyndon MacCann SC, with Brian O’Moore SC, for the plaintiffs, said while the siblings all got on well with their father, they did not necessarily get on as well with one another.

Counsel said Judge Ryan was the driving force in the partnership and provided the funds while having no official legal role. As he became older, increasingly he left it to Oran, who with Declan had been made a formal trustee. Declan lives in the UK and had no practical involvement in the day-to-day operation of the partnership.

Counsel said the partnership was “technically insolvent” in the sense the annual rent payable by it exceeds the rental income being received for various properties. However, even in this deflated property market, the value of its property assets should still exceed its liabilities, he added.