News

Court to decide if residents can stay in ‘death trap’ flats during fire safety work

The High Court will next month hear applications from residents of three Dublin properties described as potential death traps, who are seeking to be allowed to remain living there while remedial works are carried out.

Three weeks ago the court granted Dublin City Council temporary injunctions requiring residents of 100, 101 and 104 Seville Place, in the north inner city, to immediately vacate the properties.

Inspections carried out by senior fire safety officials revealed the three properties, which are divided into flats and bedsits, were in very poor condition and if a fire started it would spread very quickly.

The risk to people living in the buildings is so serious that their continued use for residential purposes should be prohibited until several serious fire safety deficiencies are addressed, the council claims.

The majority of the residents are foreign nationals.

The council sought orders against the owners, Vincent and Catherine Donoghue, and Stephen Tennant of Grant Thornton who was appointed as receiver over the three properties by AIB in October 2016.

Mr Donoghue previously told the court that he has had no control over the properties for almost three years.

At the High Court yesterday Mr Justice Michael Quinn was told by lawyers representing some of the residents affected that they wanted the court to vary the orders so they can stay in their homes.

Joe Jackson, barrister for a number of residents at 101 Seville Place, said some works had been done to the premises, such as fixing smoke detectors and fire alarms.

The building had been assessed by an expert engineer, and it was their case that the rest of the required fire safety works could be carried out without his clients having to vacate their flats, Mr Jackson said. The barrister said his clients had rights as tenants of the property and said while the council’s motives in seeking the order to vacate the property were genuine it was inadvertently acting as a bailiff for the receiver and clearing the building.

Counsel said the orders rendered his clients homeless, and offers of alternative accommodation from the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive were not acceptable.

However, Joe Jeffers BL, for the receiver, said his client did not accept claims that residents at 101 Seville Place had valid tenancies and said the receiver had not got rent from the properties since 2017.

The court heard solicitor Cahir O’Higgins was taking instructions from residents at 100 and 104, and required time before they could also seek to have the orders varied.

Conleth Bradley SC, for Dublin City Council, said the buildings should be vacated due to ongoing fire safety concerns.

Mr Justice Quinn said the hearing of the applications to vary the orders would take some time and adjourned the matter to a date in early October. The judge ruled that the temporary orders previously granted by the High Court are to remain in place.

Irish Independent

Restaurateur has his assets frozen over €3.9m court judgment

The High Court has granted a financial fund an order freezing the assets of businessman and restaurateur Peter White.

The temporary order was granted on consent by Mr Justice Michael Quinn yesterday in favour of Feniton Property Finance, which alleges Mr White has been attempting to dissipate assets to frustrate a €3.9m judgment against him in favour of the fund.

The claim is denied and the order is to remain in place until the matter returns before the court next month.

The order was sought arising out of proceedings taken by the fund against Mr White and his wife, Alicia White, and two related companies seeking money Feniton says is outstanding from various loans advanced over a decade ago.

The loans were from Bank of Scotland Ireland but were bought by the fund.

Last July, as part of an agreement reached with the Whites and the companies, Dublin Land Securities and Blue Nile Holdings, it was agreed the court could grant summary judgment totalling €3.9m against the parties in favour of Feniton. Feniton sought the judgments over money loaned to fund the purchase and refurbishment of properties at Wellington Road, Heytesbury Lane, Dublin, and St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, and were put into investment funds.

On consent from the parties, Mr Justice Quinn put a stay until December 31 on the execution of the judgment against Peter and Alicia White. That agreement was reached the same day separate proceedings, also involving Feniton, against parties including the Whites’ son, publisher Trevor White, were resolved.

Yesterday Feniton, represented by Rossa Fanning SC, returned to the court seeking various orders against Peter and Alicia White, arising out of what counsel said was “an attempt to frustrate the judgment by dissipating assets”.

Feniton, counsel said, was seeking orders including one freezing the White’s assets and that the stay on the judgment be lifted. It also sought orders that the Whites be cross-examined and provide a statement of affairs detailing how they will fund the judgment.

Jarlath Ryan BL, for Ms White, said his client is ill and was neither objecting nor consenting to any order being made against her.

Gavin Mooney SC, for Mr White, said his client didn’t accept Feniton’s claims about the dissipation of assets, and if pursued would have “plenty to say” on the matter. However, his client was prepared to consent to the freezing order but asked the amount be widened to allow for medical expenses.

Counsel added that his client would swear a statement of affairs, but was opposed to the stay being lifted.

Mr Justice Quinn said he was not prepared to make any orders against Ms White due to her illness. He said he was satisfied to make the freezing orders against Mr White and that he should swear the statement of affairs.

Irish Independent

Examiner appointed to bottled-water firm at centre of arsenic scare

The High Court has confirmed the appointment of an examiner to water firm Celtic Pure, which was at the centre of recent product recalls.

Mr Justice Michael Quinn also heard that there have been 20 expressions of interest from potential investors in the firm.

Last month the provider bottled-water provider sought the protection of the court from its creditors due to the fall out from two investigations launched after naturally occurring arsenic in some of the firm’s batches exceeded regulatory limits. 

This resulted in two precautionary product recalls.

While the Co Monaghan-based company says the source of the contamination has been dealt with, and that it is in compliance with health and safety requirements, the company’s business has suffered.

It said that key retail customers suspended orders, its monthly sales for August dropped by 75pc, it has incurred some €3m in unforeseen once-off costs, and it has cash flow difficulties.

While the company is insolvent an independent expert’s report had stated that the company had a good prospect of survival if an examiner is appointed.

If the examiner can put together a scheme of arrangement with the firm’s creditors then the company has a good prospect of surviving as a going concern, the report added.

The steps identified by the independent expert to ensure the firm can continue to trade include that Celtic Pure obtain fresh investment so it can restructure its debts and provide future working capital.

The case returned before the court on Monday when Mr Justice Quinn said he was satisfied to appoint Declan McDonald of PWC as examiner to the company, which employs 75 people.

While representatives of several of the firm’s creditors were in court, there were no objections to the application to have Mr McDonald approved as the examiner.

Mr McDonald had been acting as the company’s examiner on an interim basis.

The court was told that since his appointment as examiner there have been 20 expressions of interest from potential investors in the company.

Mr McDonald now has a maximum of 100 days since his appointment to put together a scheme with the creditors.

Irish Independent

Thousands of motorists let off the hook amid failure to serve summonses

Almost half of summonses for motorists to appear in court for speeding offences since 2017 have not been served, letting thousands off the hook.

The shocking extent of the problem is laid bare in data just released by the Courts Service.

It shows that, of 61,059 speeding offences listed in the courts over a 29-month period, some 27,899 – or 45.7pc – were struck out due to summonses not being served.

The summonses were meant to be served on motorists who failed to pay fixed-charge penalty notices.

But Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has said a variety of issues, including the offenders evading service, can contribute to the summonses not being served by gardaí.

The figures will come as a disappointment to road safety campaigners.

A Department of Justice and Department of Transport-led working group last year said there had been “a notable improvement” in the rate of summons service for fixed charge penalty offences.

While strides may have been made with the overall rate of summons service, the new data indicates a particular problem exists for speeding cases.

In fact, the figures show little or no improvement since a previous analysis by the Irish Independent revealed 45.8pc of speeding cases in 2015 and 2016 were struck out due to summonses not being served.

The new data, released to Independent TD Tommy Broughan, also lays bare wide geographical variations.

Motorists in counties such as Wexford, Westmeath and Limerick were much more likely to be served with a summons than those in Monaghan, Sligo, Mayo and Kerry.

Certain areas appear to have been blackspots when it came to serving summonses.

In Killorglin, Co Kerry, 159 out of 165 speeding offences were struck out in the 29-month period due to summonses not being served.

Three-quarters of speeding offences were struck out for the same reason in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim.

Monaghan was the county with the highest rate of non-service. Just over 60pc of speeding offences were struck out due to non-service in Carrickmacross and over 61pc in Monaghan town.

In Sligo and Mayo, 55.1pc of speeding offences were struck out due to summonses not being served. Even in the best-­performing county, Wexford, a third of speeding cases were struck out for non-service.

The Parc Road Safety Group expressed disappointment at the figures.

“This is showing a lot of summonses are not being served. There are also massive disparities in service rates across the country,” said Parc spokesperson Susan Gray.

“This is despite a working group being set up in 2014 to examine how the rate of summons serving could be improved and to regularly monitor the level of serving throughout the country.”

Mr Flanagan said attempts to serve summons could be affected by inaccurate address data, persons moving home or persons living in multi-occupancy dwellings.

“Certain persons will also take active steps to evade service. Such difficulties are experienced by many other police forces,” he said in a letter to Mr Broughan.

The minister said that where a summons was struck out, gardaí could make an application to the court office to reissue the summons.

The data released by the Courts Service also reveals two-thirds of people convicted in court of a speeding offence did not have their licence recorded so that penalty points could be applied – even though it is an offence not to produce it.

Some 12,495 people were convicted of speeding offences during the 29-month period, but just 4,201 of them had their licences recorded.

According to the Courts Service, licences could not be recorded where the driver did not attend and was convicted in their absence, drivers had no recorded licence, drivers had foreign licences, or drivers did not produce their licence to the court.

Wild variations were seen in the rate of recording of licences, with 80pc recorded in Wicklow but just 13pc in Kerry.

However, this does not necessarily mean everyone who did not produce their licence avoided points.

The Road Safety Authority said that where a licence was not handed in to the court, all available information in relation to the convicted person was forwarded electronically by the Courts Service to the Department of Transport.

This information is used in matching the person’s details to a driver record.

Irish Independent

A High Court judge has been highly critical of a Limerick solicitor, a senior counsel and a consultant physician in a judgment in a case in which he dismissed one claim as fraudulent and another as exaggerated and misleading.

Mr Justice Michael Twomey has warned solicitors, barristers and medical consultants about the risks their services will be used to facilitate the bringing of fraudulent claims.

In the same judgment, he dismissed another claimant’s case as “exaggerated”. The court did not accept the evidence of either claimant.

The judge concluded that claimant Rosaleen O’Connell managed to use the services of two lawyers and two doctors to create the appearance of a legitimate claim for damages.

He makes several references in his judgment to her claim being fraudulent. “This case highlights therefore the need for, not just lawyers, but also doctors and other professionals to be alive to the possibility of their services being used to facilitate the bringing of fraudulent claims,” he wrote.

The case involved a claim for personal injuries after Ashraf Ali, of Dooradoyle, Co Limerick, claimed his car was rear-ended in 2015.

Ms O’Connell, of Dock Road, Co Limerick, claimed she was in Mr Ali’s car at the time.

Both claimed they suffered soft tissue injuries.

In his High Court appeal decision, Mr Justice Twomey, sitting in Ennis, said there was only minor damage to the car.

He dismissed Mr Ali’s claim as “exaggerated” and decided on the evidence he had heard that Ms O’Connell was not in fact in the car at the time and that, on the balance of probabilities, she had made a fraudulent claim.

The Circuit Court had previously dismissed Ms O’Connell’s claim. The driver of the other car involved, Dr Ruth Martin of Co Mayo, appealed a damages award to Mr Ali in Limerick Circuit Court. Mr Justice Twomey was highly critical of the fact that the cases were appealed.

And he criticised solicitor Gerard O’Neill, of Limerick, medical consultant Dr Aideen Henry, and senior counsel Murray Johnson for their role in the cases.

Mr O’Neill, the solicitor for the plaintiffs, referred both Ms O’Connell and Mr Ali to a consultant to progress their claims. This was despite him having no medical expertise, the judge commented, leading him to the “unavoidable conclusion that there was no medical need for the referral of the plaintiffs to the consultant, but a legal need to support a claim for damages”.

The judge said a referral by the solicitor to a psychiatrist risked “devaluing personal injury litigation” for those who are genuinely injured.

Mr Ali had made no reference to neck or back pain when he visited his GP.

But the day after he visited Mr O’Neill, he was referred to Dr Henry.

Dr Henry’s medical report on the cause and extent of Ms O’Connell’s back injury had the potential to “mislead” a defendant and a court, the judgment says.

She is a consultant physician in orthopaedic and sports medicine in Limerick, according to the judgment.

The judge said the reports of medical consultants need to be treated with caution in personal injury cases. He said Ms O’Connell was not in the car and the appeal court did not accept Dr Henry’s statement that Ms O’Connell had suffered injury from a jolt to be accurate.

He said “it had all the appearance of a statement of fact …when it was simply a summary of what Ms O’Connell had said to her [Dr Henry] during her consultation “.

Quoting from a previous judgment, the judge warned experts: “Despite the privileged position held by experts in the Irish courts, it is clear that this position has sometimes been abused by expert witnesses who instead of complying with their ‘higher duty of independence to the court’ have expressed views or opinions which ‘all too often appeared to correspond too favourably with the interests of the parties who retained them’.”

The judge said he found it curious that barrister Mr Johnson had sought to ‘punish’ Dr Martin for suggesting that Ms O’Connell was lying about being in the car.

The judge said: “Senior counsel for Ms O’Connell suggested the very fact that Dr Martin was alleging that Ms O’Connell was lying about being in Mr Ali’s car, merited not only general damages against Dr Martin for Ms O’Connell’s ‘pain and suffering’ for her alleged back injury, but also punitive damages against Dr Martin for, it seems, her temerity to question Ms O’Connell’s honesty.”

The case, the judge said, illustrated how unmeritorious claims were appealed by plaintiffs with no money to force defendants into settling their action.

This was because an award of €7,000 can generate legal costs of €40,000.

When contacted about the case, Mr Johnson said: “I am satisfied that I conducted the cases properly and in accordance with the code of ethics of the Bar of Ireland.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”

Dr Henry had no comment to make on the judgment, and Mr O’Neill did not respond to emails and calls.

Both the Alliance for Insurance Reform and business group Isme have written to the Law Society, the Bar of Ireland and the Medical Council asking them to consider the issues raised by the judgment.

Irish Independent

The operator of a Montessori school and a family entertainment centre has secured a temporary High Court order preventing its landlord from retaking possession of its premises.

The order was secured by Fun2see Learning & Activity Centre Limited which operates the two businesses, which employs 32 people, out of unit 21 Ashbourne Retail Park, in Co Meath.

Fun2see Learning sought the orders after its landlord Pargo Properties One Limited served it with a notice of forfeiture on Friday, September 13th last requiring it pay €1.48m of alleged arrears in rent within seven days.

At the High Court on Thursday Conor Bowman Bl for Fun2see said that the landlord’s claim of alleged arrears is disputed by his client, who he said has always paid its rent of approximately €1500 a week.

He said the landlord bought the title from a NAMA appointed receiver after its original landlord got into financial difficulties.

It had agreed to pay its original landlord a higher rate of rent but claims the original rent was reduced after an anchor tenant left the retail park, which saw a reduction in the number of persons using the park.

Counsel said his client then agreed to pay a lower amount of rent, which he said did not increase when the park was in NAMA. 

In recent times counsel said that his client had agreed to pay an increase in rent to the new landlord, however any claim that any arrears of rent is contested by the applicant, counsel said.

Counsel said his client’s business will suffer far-reaching consequences, including the loss of all 32 jobs if the landlord retakes possession of the premises his client has leased for approximately a decade.

Mr Justice Michael McGrath granted the applicant a temporary injunction preventing the landlord from re-entering and taking possession of the premises.

The order also restrains the defendant company from interfering with the tenant’s businesses operated from the unit.

The injunction was granted on an ex-parte basis, and the case will return before the court in two weeks time.

Online Editors

A liquidator is to pursue Tusla over alleged unpaid debts which are said to have contributed to a specialist care company becoming insolvent.

John Healy, of Kirby Healy Chartered Accountants, is also set to investigate claims, outlined in an affidavit opened in court, that €215,000 was diverted to a former manager of Intensive Community Programmes Limited (ICP) and has not been accounted for.

The High Court yesterday ordered the winding up of ICP and approved the appointment of the liquidator.

The company was contracted by Tusla, the child and family agency, to provide specialist care for highly vulnerable teenagers and young adults with complex psychological and behavioural problems.

In a court filing, ICP director Bernard Morrin alleged difficulties getting invoices paid by Tusla since late 2017 culminated in a situation last month where the company did not have enough in its bank account to cover wages. He said that at one point Tusla owed €424,000 and that by the time the company petitioned for liquidation in August some €184,000 was still owed.

Orders for the winding up of the Naas-based company and the appointment of the liquidator were granted by Mr Justice Richard Humphreys following an application by ICP’s barrister Stephen Walsh.

Mr Healy was initially appointed provisional liquidator on August 20. The court heard his immediate priority had been to ensure alternative places were found for eight young people who had been in ICP’s care. Mr Healy’s responsibilities now include realising the assets of the company and distributing any excess to creditors. The main creditor is the Revenue Commissioners.

As part of the process he will be pursuing debts allegedly owed to ICP and investigating the affairs of the company.

Tusla declined to comment on Mr Morrin’s allegations and would not say if the matter was being investigated internally.

Irish Independent

A ban on blood donations being taken from people who lived in the United Kingdom for a year or more between 1980 and 1996 has been lifted by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).

The ban was introduced in November 2004 following the outbreak of “mad cow” disease – BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). There were concerns about the risk of acquiring variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) by eating meat from infected cattle.

The IBTS lifted the ban on foot of evidence that the risk of transmitting vCJD through blood transfusion was now considered to be “remote”.

People who spent a year or more in the UK, including Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, between the start of 1980 and end of 1996 will be eligible to donate blood from October 7th next.

Andrew Kelly, chief executive of the IBTS, said the restriction had led to the loss of about 10,000 donors who were annoyed at not being allowed to provide blood since 2004.

Evidence
“The IBTS has to protect the patient who receives blood and this step was necessary at that time,” he said. “The evidence now available allows the IBTS to overturn this deferral and reinstate those donors.”

The IBTS’ move follows a special meeting of its medical advisory committee held in late April to consider the evidence. Stephen Field, IBTS medical and scientific director, said the number of cases of vCJD to date and the predicted number of future cases “has been significantly lower than had been anticipated”.

Four cases of vCJD which had occurred in the UK are the only known cases of the disease being transmitted by transfusion, he said.

Mr Field also pointed out that the blood transfused to the four patients in the UK who developed vCJD had not had white cells removed from it, a process called leucodepletion which the IBTS has used since 1999.

In addition, the IBTS said that people who have had root canal treatment in the UK, or surgery there involving the appendix, tonsils, lymph nodes and spleen, will now be eligible to donate.

Permanent deferrals on donations will remain in place for certain individuals, including those with a family history of CJD, who had received human growth hormone or donated eggs or embryos since January 1st, 1980.

irishtimes.com

Male model charged over €1.1m money laundering offences

A male model has been charged with money laundering offences over the possession of sums totalling more than €1.1m.

Mark Andrew Adams (39) was arrested and appeared at court accused of possession of criminal proceeds at Dublin Airport and other locations over a five-year period.

Judge Michael Walsh remanded him in custody with consent to bail and adjourned the case for the preparation of a book of evidence.

Mr Adams, a currently unemployed father-of-one of Castleheath, Malahide, is accused of possession of €298,290, alleged to be the proceeds of criminal conduct, at Permanent TSB, Malahide, between January 1, 2013, and March 28, 2017.

Mr Adams is further charged with having €582,045 in alleged crime proceeds at Dublin Airport on September 11, 2015.

He is charged with having another €78,990 at Bank Of Ireland Credit Card Centre, Lower Mayor Street, IFSC, between January 16 and July 23, 2018.

A fourth charge is that he converted, transferred, handled or possessed €227,136 in crime proceeds at Bank of Ireland, Dublin Airport, between January 13, 2014, and August 18, 2018.

The sums total just under €1.2m and the charges are all under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act.

Detective Garda Tom Victory, of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, told Dublin District Court he arrested Mr Adams for the purpose of charging him at Chancery Street at 9.34am yesterday and took him to Bridewell garda station.

He was charged in Det Gda Victory’s presence and had nothing to say to any of the counts after caution.

He was handed copies of the charge sheets.

The DPP’s directions were for return for trial to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when a book of evidence is ready.

The DPP was also consenting to the accused being sent forward on a signed plea of guilty if this arises.

Mr Adams has not yet indicated how he intends to plead to the charges.

Defence solicitor Danny Nolan applied for bail and the court heard there were no garda objections subject to conditions.

Judge Walsh granted bail in the accused’s own bond of €1,000, with an independent surety of €10,000, to be approved by the court.

The judge required a total of €6,000 to be lodged in cash.

Irish Independent