A sign with the signature of a man who has said he will not comply with orders to stop extracting peat from a Co Laois bog has been erected saying anyone who “trespasses” on the land will be charged “€100,000 per minute”, the High Court has heard.
Liam Gorman, Silverwood, Mountmellick, Co Laois, has been repeatedly ordered by the court not to trespass on the 400-acre Garryowen Bog in Tinnahinch, owned by Bord na Móna Biomass (BnMB) Ltd.
The court has found BnMB is the owner and it is Mr Gorman who is trespassing.
Mr Gorman has claimed his family owned some of the land for generations and that it had been abandoned by Bord na Móna. He claimed he was now living in a caravan on part of it and disputed the BnMB ownership.
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He said he was extracting peat to sell to farmers as bedding for cattle. At one point, he disputed the jurisdiction of the courts and specifically claimed the High Court was “legally non-existent”.
BnMB last month applied to the court to have him jailed for contempt for repeatedly failing to obey orders to stop extracting peat and to remove large machinery, and a number of men working for him, from the land.
That application was adjourned to allow for a hearing of what Mr Gorman claimed were his assertions of ownership over two particular plots of land and to put in a counterclaim against the BnMB case.
The matter came for hearing this month before Mr Justice Oisín Quinn over two days, on both of which Mr Gorman, who represented himself, walked out of the hearing accompanied by a number of individuals.
The court heard a notice , signed by Mr Gorman, had been erected on the bog stating: “Warning Notice – No Trespass” and “Common Law Jurisdiction Applies Exclusively”. “There will be a charge of €100,000.00 per minute per man, woman, or corporation and for any incursion what so ever”, it said.
In a judgment, Mr Justice Quinn found Mr Gorman was trespassing and said all but a small triangle of the land was owned by BnMB.
The judge said that on the first day of the hearing he refused Mr Gorman an adjournment to get legal advice after the court heard he had twice discharged firms of solicitors since the case began more than a year ago. Mr Gorman claimed he also wanted to employ a forensic investigator, but did not elaborate on why or why he needed new solicitors.
He left the court, after again trying to challenge its jurisdiction, and did not wait to hear the evidence.
The judge said Mr Gorman returned the next day and repeated his complaints as well as suggesting he had “adverse possession”, commonly known as squatter’s rights, of the land. He repeated he would continue to extract peat no matter what happened in court and left again.
In his decision, Mr Justice Quinn said he was satisfied BnMB was the owner of the lands with the exception of a small triangle which was unregistered, but which may be partly owned by an unrelated company.
Mr Gorman had been unlawfully using some type of access road and had unlawfully carried out works such as peat extraction from the land and from one plot in particular, the judge said.
He had wrongly placed a caravan on that particular plot, the judge said. Drone images indicated the use of substantial machinery.
Mr Gorman had told the court he had returned to the land last April, having “discharged” himself from the obligations to comply with the orders made in the case, he said.
The judge was satisfied Mr Gorman intended to continue trespassing.
Mr Justice Quinn made orders restraining Mr Gorman, and all having notice of the orders, from trespassing or interfering with BnMB’s use or exercise of its rights over the lands.
He also said Mr Gorman was prohibited from bringing any machinery or other equipment on to the lands and from extracting peat.
