Glenveagh Homes Ltd v Lynch and Another

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Humphreys J.
• Judgment Date: 15 April 2024
• Neutral Citation: [2024] IEHC 157
• Court: High Court
• Docket Number: [H.P.2023.0001353]

Between

Glenveagh Homes Limited

Plaintiff

and

Pat Lynch and Denise Leavy (Otherwise Denis Leavy, DM Leavy, or D Leavy)

Defendants

[2024] IEHC 157

[H.P.2023.0001353]

THE HIGH COURT

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT

JUDGMENT ofHumphreys J.delivered on Monday the 15th day of April, 2024

1 . Lawsuits designed to silence critics rather than to achieve justice, frequently known as SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation), are a modern form of abuse of process, and should be struck out at an early stage before generating significant adverse consequences for defendants. On the other hand, the entitlement to litigate in defence of one's rights is guaranteed by common law, the Constitution, the ECHR and EU law. Plaintiffs will always say that a given action is in the latter category; defendants sometimes assert the former. The plaintiff here contends that the defendants engaged in a “shakedown” by making large number of planning observation and appeals to “extort” the plaintiff to buy land at an inflated price. The defendants move to strike out the action. The law provides that a strike-out order can only be made in a clear case. Is this such a case?

Facts

2 . Clonmagadden SDZ lies to the north-east of Navan, Co. Meath. The plaintiff and defendants own separate agricultural lands within the SDZ boundaries.

3 . Given that in a motion to strike out, the plaintiff's case must generally be taken at its height, we must start with the plaintiff's pleas of fact, subject to any argument by the defendants that there is no prospect of proving these. The statement of claim contends as follows:

“1. The Plaintiff is a limited liability company (Reg No. 368093) and has its registered office at Block B, Maynooth Business Campus, Maynooth, County Kildare, W23 W5X7. The Plaintiff is the registered owner of certain lands the subject of the within proceedings which are more particularly described in the First Schedule to the Plenary Summons and hereto.

2. The First Defendant is an insurance consultant and resides at Batterstown, Proudstown, County Meath.

3. The Second Defendant is a bank clerk and resides at Batterstown, Proudstown, County Meath.

4. The name ‘Denis Leavy’ or ‘DM Leavy’ or ‘D Leavy’ is a person unknown and a fictional/ contrived pseudonym used by or on behalf of the First and/or Second Defendant, in circumstances where a putative person(s) using the name ‘Denis Leavy’, ‘DM Leavy’ or ‘D Leavy’ has (have) made a series of submissions and/or observations on planning applications made by or on behalf of the Plaintiff to planning authorities, and have appealed decisions on development consents to An Bord Pleanála, all from an address at Proudstown, County Meath, which is the address of the Defendants.

Background

5. The Plaintiff has been engaged in the business of property development since 2003 or thereabouts and owns or has consent to use the lands including the lands specified in the First Schedule to the Plenary Summons and hereto, being development lands at various locations throughout the State, several of which are in various stages of the planning process at any one time.

6. In July 2001, the Minister for the Environment formally designated lands at Clonmagadden Valley, Navan, County Meath, as a residential Strategic Development Zone (‘the Clonmagaden SDZ’) under Part IX of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (‘the Act’). The development agency specified in the Ministerial Order is Meath County Council.

7. On 18 May 2004, An Bord Pleanála approved a Planning Scheme for the Clonmagadden SDZ.

8. At all material times concerning the issues raised in these proceedings, the First Defendant has owned lands within the SDZ.

9. In July 2018, the Plaintiff purchased ALL THAT AND THOSE the lands comprised in Folios MH50717F, MH11904F, MH43255F and MH11891F of the Register of County Meath. In March 2022, the Plaintiff purchased ALL THAT AND THOSE the lands comprised in Folio MH60470F of the Register of County Meath (together ‘the Plaintiff's Lands’) from the First Defendant acting by his receiver Ken Tyrrell. The Plaintiff's lands extend to approx. 60 acres within the SDZ.

10. The Plaintiff's Lands are located immediately adjacent to lands in the ownership of the First Defendant. The First Defendant's lands are comprised in Folios MH59368F, MH30453F and MH68644F extending approx. 15.22 acres with a registered address at Batterstown, Proudstown Road, Navan, County Meath.

11. The Plaintiff's Lands are also located in proximity to lands owned by Denise Leavy, the Second Defendant (approx. 1 acre) comprised in Folio MH60467F, and Kathleen Lynch (approx. 0.77 acre) comprised in Folio MH11877.

12. The First Defendant's lands, the Second Named Defendant's lands and the lands owned by Kathleen Lynch comprising in total approx. 17 acres are referred to herein as (the ‘Lynch Lands’).

13. The Plaintiff's Lands are also located in proximity to lands owned by Martin W. Lynch (approx. 7.5 acres), of Castletown, County Meath.

14. The Plaintiff's lands are also located in proximity to lands owned by Martin Lynch (approx. 10 acres) of Roodtown, Ardee, County Louth.

15. All of the above lands are identified in the map in the Third Schedule to the Plenary Summons and hereto.

16. In July 2018 and in March 2019, shortly after coming into ownership of the lands, the Plaintiff was approached by two separate estate agents acting on behalf of the first Defendant and on behalf of Pat Lynch, Kathleen Lynch and Denise Leavy inviting the Plaintiff to purchase the Lynch Lands. No agreement was concluded at that time as the price sought was well in excess of the open market value of the lands.”

4 . The plaintiff's reply to particulars (which includes a typo at the outset incorrectly stating that it is provided on behalf of the defendants) sets out details:

“The First Defendant's land was offered to the Plaintiff at initially €700,000 per acre or €11,900,000 for the entire. When the Plaintiff declined to make an offer the price was reduced to €500,000 per acre or €8,500,000 for the entire. The Plaintiff purchased their lands following an open market bidding process in July 2018 for €161,017 per acre or €9,500,000 for 59 acres. The Clonmagadden SDZ zoning criteria had not changed. The First Defendant had been trying to sell his lands for a number of years and has been unable to secure a sale.”

5 . The statement of claim continues:

“17. On 18 March 2021, Mr. Stephen Garvey, Chief Executive Officer of the Plaintiff companies, together with Mr. Eoin Hughes, met with the First Defendant and his planning advisor, Raymond O'Malley, in an attempt to negotiate a deal to purchase the Lynch Lands in the SDZ. …”

6 . We can pause here to indicate that the schedules to the statement of claim record that the first adverse submission in relation to the plaintiff's development occurred a few days later on 25th March, 2021.

7 . The statement of claim continues:

“17. … Mr Hughes had several further meetings and discussions with the First Defendant in the period from March to May 2021 and outline parameters of a deal were agreed in principle, subject to contract, and indicative terms were recorded by a hand written note. However, no formal agreement was executed as the First Defendant demanded improved terms.

18. At or around that same time, planning observations began to be lodged in the name of Denis Leavy, D Leavy or DM Leavy against live applications for planning permissions made by the Plaintiff.

19. In May 2021, at a meeting in the First Defendant's house at [house name], one of a series of meetings at both Glenveagh offices and the Defendants' house during negotiations, a representative of the Plaintiff asked the First Defendant if he knew a ‘Denis Leavy’. The First Defendant said that he knew of him and that ‘he had a degree in an area where you do not want him to have one’, or words to that effect, and that ‘Leavy was very clever’, all of which words were intended to convey that the Plaintiff was dealing with a real person who had an understanding of the planning process.”

8 . The reply to particulars sets out details:

“Dates of meetings 18 March 2021, 4pm – Stephen Garvey, Eoin Hughes, Pat Lynch, and Raymond O'Malley at the Defendants' Home, [house name]. 22 March 2021, 4pm – Eoin Hughes and Pat Lynch at the Defendants' Home, [house name]. 12 May 2021, 5pm — Eoin Hughes and Pat Lynch at the Defendants' Home, [house name]. 27 May 2021, 2pm — Eoin Hughes and Pat Lynch at Glenveagh's office in Maynooth.

See a copy of a note, contemporaneously hand written on 27 May 2021 at the meeting between Eoin Hughes and the First Defendant. It was in the Boardroom in the Plaintiff's office. Mr Hughes offered to type the terms, but the First Defendant wanted them to be handwritten. The meeting lasted approx. 1 ¹/₂ hours. During this meeting, which resulted in the Heads of Terms, the First Defendant advised that he could make the submissions/ observations on the Plaintiff's planning applications the subject of the — 183 proceedings ‘go away’. The First Defendant left the meeting apparently very happy and the Plaintiff fully anticipated that the agreed terms would progress to executed commitments.

The agreed purchase price as per the handwritten note was €450,000 per acre or €7.65m. The deal did not progress any further because the First Defendant verbally stated in communications after the meeting on the 27 May 2021 that he and his family wanted more money for the land and wanted an extended period of 3 years to live at the Property. Furthermore, the First Defendant demanded a greater price in 2022, a land price of €493,670 per acre, despite land market values having reduced during the intervening period.”

9 . The statement of claim continues:

“20. In March 2022, following a competitive tendering process, the Plaintiff closed the purchased 1.28 acres of lands in the Clonmagedden SDZ from...