THE development of some lands in Dublin docks had been frozen because an appeal by Mr Harry Crosbie against a High Court judgment was waiting to be heard, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.

Mr Crosbie had sought the return of six acres of land in the docks and brought an action against the Custom House Docks Authority and the State. He lost the action in the High Court and is appealing it to the Supreme Court.

Yesterday Mr Michael Cush, counsel for the Custom House Docks Authority, asked for an early date for the hearing of the appeal. He said that, while the appeal was pending, it had the effect of freezing the development of a particular plot of land and of freezing lands around it. It also affected the compulsory purchase order.

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, set July 11th for the appeal hearing.

Mr Crosbie brought his High Court action seeking the return of the land following the abandonment of a Government backed national sports centre. He claimed the land should have been returned once the plans for the centre were abandoned.

The High Court judge said there was no basis for suggesting the legislation was constitutionally defective because of its failure to provide for the reconveyance of compulsorily acquired land in the circumstances suggested because the Minister was not performing the function on which this claim was based.