THE DETAIL of a €4 million claim by film director Jim Sheridan and his wife, Fran, over alleged defective works on their seafront home in Dalkey, Co Dublin, has been challenged in the High Court.
Barrister Marcus Dowling, representing one of eight defendants being sued by the Sheridans, yesterday asked Mr Justice Frank Clarke not to allow the couple to expand on their original claim.
He told the court the original statement of claim delivered by the couple’s legal team in December 2008 had last month been stretched to include allegations of negligence not previously listed.
The Sheridans claim that as a result of negligence on the part of various contractors and professionals engaged in the building of their four-bedroomed home, Martha’s Vineyard, Coliemore Road, Dalkey, the house had suffered from extensive water damage.
They claim the damage, allegedly caused by water ingress, frustrated efforts to sell the property in 2007, when it would have achieved a price in the region of €7 million. They claim two potential purchasers who were aware of the water problem pulled out, and the property was now worth €3-€4.5 million.
Mr Dowling, who appeared for architects De Blacam and Meagher, St Catherine’s Lane West, Dublin, who is the second defendant in a list of eight, said the loss of opportunity of sale constituted the bulk of the Sheridans’ claim.
Earlier the court was told the Sheridans intended their home, the site of a former fisherman’s cottage they bought in 1997, to be one of the finest coastal properties in Ireland, but they were now servicing mortgages on two exceptionally expensive properties. They had another property on St Mary’s Road, Ballsbridge.
Mr Dowling said a London company, Gilmac Building Services, now insolvent and no longer participating in the litigation, was “recognised by everybody as the villains of the piece who had made a complete mess in building the house”.
He said new particulars of the alleged cause of water ingress, other than alleged defective waterproof concrete, had been served on De Blacam and Meagher only last month, and included a new extended claim against his clients.
Michael Vallely, for Cementaid (UK) Ltd and Cementaid Dublin, told the court that experts had identified 17 water ingress issues which had nothing to do with the concrete supplied by his clients.
Judge Clarke will rule on Friday on admissibility of the new particulars alleged by the Sheridans.