The High Court has adjourned for three weeks an action by the widow of the late Liam Lawlor aimed at preventing the Mahon planning tribunal from making any findings of serious misconduct against herself or her husband unless it can prove those beyond reasonable doubt.
Hazel Lawlor, Somerton House, Lucan, Co Dublin, was granted leave last month to bring judicial review proceedings against the tribunal in which she is seeking orders and declarations, including an injunction, pending further court orders restraining further inquiries by the tribunal into matters concerning her.
At the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill agreed to the three-week adjournment, which was consented to by both parties, to allow for the exchange of legal documents.
In her action Ms Lawlor claims the tribunal had destroyed the life of her husband, herself and their family and had displayed a "vindictive and vengeful" attitude towards her husband. She was in personal fear of the powers of the tribunal and how they might be used against her, she added.
She is seeking several declarations, including that the tribunal may not make findings of serious misconduct against her late husband, who died in a car crash in Moscow in October 2005, or against herself, unless supported by evidence proven beyond any reasonable doubt, not on the basis of balance of probabilities.
Ms Lawlor also wants an order directing the tribunal to correct the record of its proceedings for a particular day of evidence by taking out an entry indicating that builder Séamus Ross had been paid £500,000 by Mr Lawlor.
Mr Ross had stated Mr Lawlor paid him £5,000, not £500,000. This "erroneous note" had damaged the reputation of the Lawlors, she said.
The tribunal had wrongfully failed to correct its own record despite vigorous requests from her husband Liam prior to his death.
In an affidavit, Ms Lawlor, a mother of four, said no findings as such were made against her late husband by the tribunal as no module in which he was involved was brought to a conclusion by the time of his death.
He had found the tribunal proceedings to be interminable and the failure to start and finish lines of inquiry was a matter of great frustration, confusion and exhaustion to him.