Broadcaster Pat Kenny has refused to agree to suspend gardening and maintenance work on a portion of land adjoining his home in Dalkey which is at the centre of a legal dispute with his neighbour, the High Court was told yesterday.
Gerard Charlton, a retired solicitor, had tried and failed to secure such an undertaking pending the outcome of proceedings over the land, Mr Justice Frank Clarke was told. The full hearing of the dispute between the neighbours will be held next year.
The dispute between Pat and Cathy Kenny and their next door neighbours, Mr Charlton (72) and his wife, Maeve, centres on who owns the lands known as Gorse Hill which adjoin their properties.
The Charltons claim to be the legal owners of the rocky outcrop while the Kennys dispute that and claim any title the Charltons may have had to the property has been extinguished by adverse possession (squatters' rights). Mr Charlton, of Maple Tree House, Harbour Road, Dalkey, rejects the assertion by the Kennys that they have squatters rights to the property which can apply where a property has been abandoned for 12 or more years.
Mr Kenny is claiming he locked the property from public access 16 years ago and that it has been inaccessible since then except by scaling a cliff.
Eileen Barrington for the Charltons told the court yesterday the defendants were continuing to use the property for "gardening and maintenance" purposes as if it was their own. Her clients were concerned about this and felt that the inspection process could be prejudiced as a result.
Counsel said her clients were prepared to enter a reciprocal arrangement with the defendants not to use the property pending a full hearing of the case but the defendants had not agreed to that.
In the absence of such an agreement, she intended to bring a motion to that effect on December 10th, counsel added.
Lyndon MacCann SC, for the Kennys, rejected the suggestion that his clients were impeding a horticultural inspection process by continuing to carry out routine garden maintenance. He said it was the Kennys' garden, they had access to it for more than 12 uninterrupted years and they would continue to garden it because it was their garden.
Mr Justice Clarke said that if Ms Barrington is to bring a motion on the matter, it should be issued and served within 10 days returnable for December 10th, when a number of other issues will also be dealt with.