Elderly sisters Ms Eileen and Ms Rose Blackhall have successfully blocked the transfer of their home at Marino Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin, to the builder who bought it for £400,000.
A decision by Judge Liam Devally in Dublin Circuit Civil Court, refusing to direct the County Registrar to execute a deed of conveyance to developers Chessington Ltd, effectively nullifies the contract of sale.
In the unlikely event of the proceedings not revisiting the High and Supreme Courts again, as they have on numerous occasions since 1995, the property could now be offered for sale at today's market rate of £1.5 million.
Ms Rose Blackhall smiled from her wheelchair and raised a hand in the air when she heard Judge Devally deliver his reserved judgment. In a nearby lounge-restaurant her sister and co-litigant, Eileen, collapsed when she heard the news.
Rose and Eileen jointly own the house with their sister-in-law, Ms Iris Blackhall, the widow and administrator of their brother Gerald's estate.
In 1995 Judge James Carroll, now retired, in the Circuit Civil Court ordered the sale of the property, which was bought by Chessington Ltd.
Two years later the case came on appeal before Ms Justice Laffoy in the High Court. She affirmed Judge Carroll's order and granted Ms Iris Blackhall liberty to apply to a judge of the Circuit Court for an order giving her possession of the property. Four months later Judge Carroll granted her that order. The Supreme Court eventually affirmed Ms Justice Laffoy's judgments.
Following many unsuccessful revisits to the High Court, the judicial meanderings of Blackhall v Blackhall & Blackhall turned full circle and came back down to the Circuit Court, where Judge Devally was asked to order the execution of a deed of conveyance to the purchaser.
Yesterday's judgment followed an application by a Co Wicklow solicitor, Mr Brendan Maloney, who had been given carriage of sale of the property by court order.
Judge Devally found that all parties, including Chessington Ltd, had constructive knowledge that only 12.5 per cent of the deposit on foot of the purchase contract had been paid and that no one had ever requested payment of the outstanding 87.5 per cent of the deposit. "At a time of rampant inflation in property prices and a time when two of the vendors were most vehemently opposing the sale, Section 31 of the Contract for Sale was not fulfilled," Judge Devally said. He held that if Chessington believed it had a contract, and a court order copper-fastening it, the correct thing would have been to pay the deposit.
"I believe that Chessington, in allowing years to pass before even tendering the deposit and in the knowledge of the strenuous opposition by Rose and Eileen Blackhall, was in fundamental breach of Section 31 of the Contract for Sale," he said.
Judge Devally said that from the information before him, when Ms Justice Laffoy had made High Court orders in 1997 and 1998 she had not been made aware by any of the parties that the bulk of the deposit had not been paid. He felt it would be unsafe for him, in the circumstances, to accede to the application for directions to the County Registrar.