AN 86-YEAR-OLD widow has claimed before the High Court that she is homeless after a falling out with her daughter and son-in-law whom she claims she helped buy a house.
Bridget Dillon was granted an interim injunction, returnable to next week, preventing her daughter Margaret Murphy and son-in-law Denis Murphy from selling the house at Lakelands, Naas, Co Kildare, worth €450,000, prior to their allegedly planned move to Canada.
Mrs Dillon claims she was living in the house after agreeing with them to sell her apartment.
In an affidavit, Mrs Dillon, a mother of five, said Margaret and Dennis Murphy suggested some years ago that she and her husband, Michael, sell the apartment and use a portion of the sale monies to help them buy a property large enough to accommodate all four of them.
She said her husband gave a cheque for £60,000 to his son-in-law towards the purchase of a four-bed semi-detached house with garage conversion at Lakelands, Naas, for £120,000 under a “gentleman’s agreement” and without legal advice.
They moved into Lakelands in 1999 and “things went smoothly” until her husband’s death from cancer in 2001.
After this, she said, her relationship with the couple deteriorated and she noticed a “marked change in their attitude to me living in the house”.
Mrs Dillon said, after a recent row, Margaret told her she was fed up with her living with them. Mrs Dillon said she packed her bags and drove to her sister’s apartment. After a week, she returned to Lakelands to pick up some things but the locks were changed.
She said she believed Margaret and her husband planned to return to Canada, which they are citizens of, with their daughter once she is married this month and wanted her out of the house so that they can sell it.
In her High Court claim, she is seeking a declaration that the provision of right of residence in Lakelands for £60,000 was an improvident transaction which should be set aside on the basis that it was procured by undue influence.
She is also seeking the return of this money, and a declaration that she is entitled to 50 per cent of the proceeds of sale of the Lakelands house.