A HIGH Court action brought by an 86-year-old widow who claims she has been left homeless after falling out with her daughter and son-in-law whom she helped buy a house by selling her own apartment, has been adjourned to later this month.
Last week Bridget Dillon obtained a temporary injunction preventing her daughter, Margaret Murphy, and her husband, Denis Murphy, from selling the house at Lakelands, Naas, Co Kildare, worth €450,000, before what Ms Dillon said is their planned move to Canada.
Yesterday at the High Court Mr Justice George Birmingham adjourned the matter to a date in late May to allow the defendants to file a defence.
Previously the High Court heard from Sunniva McDonagh BL, for Ms Dillon, that the grandmother had left the home at Lakelands to stay temporarily with her sister following a row over attendance at a granddaughter's wedding. Matters had come to a head two weeks ago as the Murphys' daughter, Ms Dillon's grand-daughter, was due to get married.
Ms Dillon says she was invited to the wedding but was told it would be only for the church service and they would drop her home immediately afterwards. Ms Dillon said a row ensued.
She returned a week later to find the locks on the house had been changed and said she has been made homeless without any means to secure alternative accommodation.
In an affidavit, Ms Dillon, a mother of five, said in 1997 she and her late husband, Michael, sold their home in Kildare and bought an apartment in Dublin. The apartment cost IR£87,000 and another daughter contributed IR£37,000 plus legal fees and paid an outstanding mortgage element.
That same year, the Murphys returned from Canada, where they had raised their children. Ms Dillon said they asked her and Michael on numerous occasions to make a contribution towards buying a home here.
She said they sold the apartment and both couples lived together in rented accommodation. In 1999, under "a gentleman's agreement", Michael gave a cheque for IR£60,000 to his son-in-law towards the purchase of a house at Lakelands.