A businessman has failed to get a stay on a decision upholding an earlier High Court decision in a dispute with a couple over ownership of a domestic garage in which they kept exotic pets, including a female caiman.
The Court of Appeal (CoA), which last July rejected appeals over the way the High Court handled contempt of court applications against Noel Martin snr and Drumgoan Developments Ltd, on Tuesday refused the stay to allow for a further appeal to be sought from the Supreme Court.
In the High Court in May 2024, a judge made a declaration that Alan O’Neill and June Finnegan were the owners of a disputed garage where they kept the exotic pets.
This followed an incident on February 21st, 2024, when Mr O’Neill was at home and heard hammering on the door of their adjacent garage.
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Mr O’Neill found two men smashing the walls of the garage with power tools, while another approached Mr O’Neill holding a piece of paper claiming Drumgoan owned his garage.
A fourth man arrived in a JCB digger and said he intended to drive the digger through the wall. The men were directed by Noel Martin snr. After Mr O’Neill told them there were animals in the garage, the digger driver said he was aware of this and did not care.
The digger was driven through the garage wall, causing substantial damage.
The couple obtained a High Court injunction preventing any further interference with their garage by Mr Martin snr, his son Darren, and Drumgoan.
Mr Martin snr later admitted breaching the court order by sending various texts, which Mr O’Neill said were threatening and designed to intimidate them.
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The High Court found Mr Martin snr was guilty of flagrant breaches of court orders and said as a result it was awarding full costs against him, Darren Martin and Drumgoan. The declaration was made on consent between the parties.
Mr Martin appealed the decision.
The CoA said the situation occurred because at the time when the housing estate in which Mr O’Neill and Ms Finnegan live was built, both they and some of their neighbours paid extra to purchase a garage for each of their properties.
The homes and the garages had been built by Drumgoan and, as a result of an error, the land on which the garage was built was not conveyed to the homeowners. By late 2023 Drumgoan was still the registered owner of this garage and other garages in the estate.
Mr O’Neill claimed that Drumgoan, Noel Martin snr and Darren Martin had been “grabbing plots of land from my neighbours in the estate claiming that these plots of land belong to them”.
Mr Martin snr demanded money for them even though he had negotiated the sale of the homes in the estate in the first place, it was claimed.
Mr Martin snr, in the appeal, claimed the High Court erred in its decision.
The CoA last July dismissed the appeal on all grounds and confirmed the order for costs.
On Tuesday, the CoA dismissed Mr Martin snr’s application for a stay pending a possible further appeal to the Supreme Court.
The CoA’s Mr Justice Brian O’Moore said “one striking aspect” of the stay application was that the only sanction imposed upon any of the appellants were orders for costs.
As this was an application in which the appellants had failed completely, the costs of the written submissions in the CoA were also awarded in favour of Mr O’Neill and Ms Finnegan, he said.
