A marathon legal dispute between a woman and her brother over possession of their former family home in Inchicore, which began almost 25 years ago, has been halted by the High Court.
However, fresh proceedings are pending over the validity of the now deceased woman’s transfer of the property to her daughter.
The original dispute between Marie Lucy O’Kelly and her brother Raymond, who died in 2023 and 2019 respectively, began in about 2001 and concerned a property at Jamestown Road, Inchicore, Dublin.
It was originally owned by their father Charles McGovern, who died in 1970.
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Under his 1967 will, two-thirds of the value of a trust fund was to transfer to Ms O’Kelly, his daughter and executor, with the remaining one third a charitable bequest for St Joseph’s Young Priests Society.
In a recently published judgment, Mr Justice Anthony Barr said, after the death of Mr McGovern’s wife in 1971, his son Raymond and other siblings continued to live in the Inchicore property. The other siblings left over time and Raymond remained.
Ms O’Kelly had said, to maintain good family relations, she permitted Raymond to live there under licence. He remained there for about 20 years prior to her taking possession proceedings.
Dublin Corporation indicated to her in 2000, due to the then state of the property, it intended to take action under the Derelict Sites Act. When her brother refused to leave, Ms O’Kelly went to court acting on her own behalf or as executor and trustee under her father’s will.
Under a 2001 Circuit Court order obtained in default of any defence having been advanced by Raymond, she was entitled to recover possession of the property by February 2002.
When Raymond had not left by that date, the Dublin County Sheriff took possession of the house and delivered possession to Ms O’Kelly. Raymond later unlawfully re-entered the property, the judge said.
Raymond served a notice of appeal against the Circuit Court order in 2003 but did nothing to prosecute that appeal and remained in the property until his death in October 2019.
Ms O’Kelly died in July 2023 and, in November 2023, Niall McGovern, as personal representative of the estate of Raymond McGovern, was substituted as defendant to the proceedings.
Grellan O’Kelly, as personal representative of the estate of Ms O’Kelly, was later substituted for his deceased sister as plaintiff.
In May 2024, Mr O’Kelly applied to have the appeal initiated in 2003 by Raymond McGovern struck out over delay and want of prosecution.
The application was opposed on grounds including alleged inactivity by Ms O’Kelly in bringing the appeal to a hearing and because separate Circuit Court proceedings had been initiated in 2023 challenging the validity of her 2009 transfer of the Inchicore property to her daughter Carla.
In his judgment granting the strikeout order, Mr Justice Anthony Barr said a plaintiff who got a judgment should not be denied the benefit of it for a prolonged period while the appellant delays in bringing on their appeal.
Raymond McGovern had to get an extension of time to appeal and, having got that, did “absolutely nothing” to prosecute his appeal, the judge said. No explanation was offered for that inactivity.
It was “unstateable” to suggest Ms O’Kelly bore some of the blame over not taking steps to bring on the appeal, he said.
To permit an appeal to proceed in 2025, when notice of it was served in 2003 and where the original plaintiff died in July 2023, would make this litigation “a parody of justice”, he said.
