A BATTLE for a home worth more than £500,000 in one of Dublin's top residential areas was settled on undisclosed terms in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday.
The court heard earlier that former live-in partners Mr Frank Haughton and Ms Helen Kilmartin had separated in mid-1996. Mr Haughton, who runs a number of public houses in Prague in the Czech Republic, left the house the couple had shared for six years at Pembroke Lane, Ballsbridge, and moved to a rented apartment in Dublin.
Mr John Gordon SC, for Mr Haughton, told Judge Liam Devally last July his client had bought the house in 1988 for £144,000 and had since discharged a mortgage with National Irish Bank, apart from a final payment which had been made by Ms Kilmartin.
Mr Gordon said Mr Haughton, of Pnokopska 10, Praha 1, Czech Republic, worked almost exclusively in Prague, where he ran a number of public houses, and had sought possession of the Dublin property after his relationship broke up in the summer of 1996. Ms Kilmartin had refused to surrender possession and Mr Haugh ton was seeking an order of possession from the court.
Mr Gordon said Ms Kilmartin had lodged a defence in which she acknowledged that Mr Haughton was the registered owner of the property, but had counter-claimed for a 50 per cent entitlement on the grounds that she had made direct and indirect contributions to the property over the years.
Ms Mary O'Toole, who appeared with Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, for Ms Kilmartin, said her client's case was that the parties had agreed the property would be held by them jointly, and Ms Kilmartin had expended money on the premises in the knowledge that would be the case.
Ms O'Toole said there would be corroborative evidence from third parties that both Mr Haughton and Ms Kilmartin held themselves to be joint owners and that Mr Haughton had at all times recognised this.
The action had been adjourned in July to facilitate the arrangement of a special two-day hearing. Details of yesterday's settlement were not divulged.