A woman who shared a home with her husband for some 27 years until his death in 1999 must transfer the house to her stepson, the High Court decided yesterday.
Mr Justice Gilligan noted that the stepson, Hugh Byrne, a company director with an address in Herefordshire, England, who the court heard had been promised the house by his late father on condition he paid for certain works to it, had said he did not propose to evict his stepmother during her lifetime.
The proceedings relate to a house at Glen Road, Aughrim, Co Wicklow, and were before the High Court as an appeal from a decision in November 2002 of Wicklow Circuit Court rejecting the claim of Mr Byrne for transfer of the house to him.
Mr Byrne claimed he had had an agreement with his father, Mr Patrick Joseph Byrne, before the latter's death, that the house would be transferred to him after he had provided the funds to add on an extension to it in the 1960s.
His father was registered as the full owner of the property, and Catherine Byrne, the executrix of Patrick Joseph Byrne's estate and the latter's widow, was the defendant in the proceedings. She is the deceased man's second wife.
In his judgment granting Hugh Byrne's claim, Mr Justice Gilligan said the plaintiff was the eldest of five children and was born and reared in the dwelling-house. Hugh Byrne had left for England when he was 16, had worked hard and had been very successful.
He had returned home on a number of occasions. In 1964 he claimed his father had indicated to him that if he funded the extension and the necessary works his father and his mother would sign the dwelling-house over to him. His sister, Phyllis, had agreed that, if he provided the funds, she would be happy with the situation. By 1965 Hugh Byrne had spent £1,800 on the property, and an extension had been constructed.
Hugh Byrne also claimed his father and himself went to a solicitor on January 4th, 1966, for the purpose of having the dwelling house signed over to Hugh Byrne. Afterwards, his father had told him the solicitor had advised it was easier and cheaper to do this by a will, and his father had added: "The house is yours when I die." Hugh Byrne had accepted that situation.
In September 1967 his mother had died and, five years later, his father married Ms Catherine Byrne, a widow with five children. She and his father had one child, Patrick.
Mr Justice Gilligan said he was satisfied that the central thrust of the representation made by Hugh Byrne's father was to the effect that if Hugh Byrne paid monies so that the necessary works could be carried out, the house would be his.
The judge said Hugh Byrne's father was at all times perfectly entitled to make a further will and to alter it in any respect. However, he was not entitled to go back on the arrangement arrived at with the plaintiff.
This arrangement was that the house was to be transferred to Hugh Byrne, in accordance with his father's promise, in respect of which promise the plaintiff had acted to his detriment.
It would be unconscionable for the court not to give effect to the agreement arrived at between the plaintiff and the deceased that the property was to be transferred to the plaintiff, the judge held.