A man has lost an appeal following a dispute with a couple over a garage in which they kept exotic pets, including a caiman, which resembles an alligator.
Mr Justice Brian O’Moore, on behalf of the three judge Court of Appeal, rejected appeals over the way the High Court handled contempt of court applications against Noel Martin snr and Drumgoan Developments Ltd.
The case arose when on February 21st, 2024, Alan O’Neill and his daughter (3) were sitting in the home in which he and his partner June Finnegan had lived for 20 years, at Crann Nua, Edenderry Road, Portarlington, Co Laois.
Mr O’Neill heard loud hammering on the door of the adjacent garage where the couple kept various reptiles including chameleons, scorpions, tarantulas and the caiman.
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He found two men smashing the walls of the garage with power tools while another approached Mr O’Neill holding a piece of paper claiming Drumgoan owned his garage.
A fourth man arrived in a JCB digger and said he intended to drive the digger through the wall. The men were directed by Mr Martin snr. After Mr O’Neill told them there were animals in the garage, the digger driver said he was aware of this and did not care.
“As I turned to pick up my daughter, the JCB driver drove the digger through the wall of the garage causing substantial damage,” Mr O’Neill told the court in a sworn statement. “Gardaí were called and the work stopped.”
The couple got a High Court injunction preventing any further interference with their garage by Mr Martin snr, his son Darren Martin, and Drumgoan.
Mr Martin snr later admitted breaching the court order by sending various texts which Mr O’Neill said were threatening and designed to intimidate them.
They included Mr Martin snr saying he would report Mr O’Neill to Tusla “for keeping pets” and also sent images via text message implying he had reported Mr O’Neill to Tusla.
The High Court found Mr Martin snr was wilfully in breach of the orders and said as a result it was awarding full costs against him, Mr Martin and Drumgoan. Mr Martin appealed the decision.
In his judgment on behalf of the appeal court, Mr Justice O’Moore said “this bizarre incident” occurred because at the time the estate in which Mr O’Neill and Ms Finnegan live was built, both they and some of their neighbours paid extra amounts to purchase a garage for each of their properties.
The homes and the garages had been built by Drumgoan and as a result of an error, the land on which the garage was built was not conveyed to the homeowners. By late 2023 Drumgoan was still the registered owner of this garage and other garages in the estate.
Mr O’Neill claimed that Drumgoan, Mr Martin snr and Mr Martin had been “grabbing plots of land from my neighbours in the estate claiming that these plots of land belong to them”.
Mr Martin snr demanded money for them even though he had negotiated the sale of the homes in the estate in the first place, the judge said. This was also in circumstances where Mr Martin snr said he had not been involved in Drumgoan for some time and it remained unclear as to why the company required title, the judge said.
Dismissing Mr Martin snr’s main appeal, claiming the High Court erred on a number of grounds, Mr Justice O’Moore said the rationale of the High Court judge in making the order as to costs that he did make was clear.
In relation to a claim Mr Martin should not have been fixed with the costs order, the judge said the injunction case was brought against all three defendants, Mr Martin snr, Mr Martin and Drumgoan.
Whether or not the individual defendants were acting as agents of the company, their behaviour was such as to justify the bringing of the application, he said.
“It may be the case that either Mr Martin snr or Darren Martin can seek an indemnity from Drumgoan. That is a matter between themselves”, he said.
