Judge tells of 'acrimony' in Kenny land dispute

RTÉ broadcaster Pat Kenny, who is claiming squatter's rights over a €1 million patch of land beside his home in the Dublin suburb…

RTÉ broadcaster Pat Kenny, who is claiming squatter's rights over a €1 million patch of land beside his home in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey, was directed by the High Court yesterday to allow experts to access it for inspection.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke said a dispute over the land between Pat and Cathy Kenny and next door neighbours Gerard (72) and Maeve Charlton was marked with a considerable degree of acrimony on both sides.

"Unfortunately it would appear that this level of acrimony has spilled over to an unusual degree into the positions which have been adopted by both parties' solicitors," he said.

The Charltons claim to be the legal owners of the rocky outcrop over which the ownership dispute is being waged. The Kennys contest the Charltons' title and claim any title they may have had to the property has been extinguished by adverse possession (squatters' rights).

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Judge Clarke said were it not for the acrimonious atmosphere in which legal proceedings were being conducted, it seemed unlikely that applications to the High Court over inspection of documents and lands would have been necessary.

He declined to make any orders regarding legal costs relating to competing applications for inspection and for detailed particulars, which means both sides will have to carry their own costs in relation to these. Judge Clarke said it was common practice for solicitors involved in court proceedings to co-operate with regard to inspection of documents and, more frequently, in practice an exchange of copies of relevant documentation.

He said both sides seem to be prepared to require strict compliance with the rules when it suits them but to place reliance on what might be called normal practice when strict compliance does not suit them.

Judge Clarke said significant blame lay on both sides.

He directed that an architect and a horticulturist together with the Charltons'solicitor should be permitted access to the lands.

Mr Charlton, a retired solicitor, of Maple Tree House, Harbour Road, Dalkey, rejects the assertion by the Kennys that they have squatters' rights to the property which can apply where a property has been abandoned for 12 or more years.

Mr Kenny, of Bulloch Harbour, is claiming he locked the property from public access 16 years ago and that it has been inaccessible since then, except by scaling a cliff.