Yesterday's court decision was the culmination of a decade-long dispute over property and wills, writes Liam Reid
It was a traditional but bitter Irish dispute over land that has left a family and neighbours divided, and an elderly brother and sister facing a huge legal bill.
In a case with echoes of a John B. Keane story, it also dragged in a respected solicitor and a Circuit Court judge after allegations were made against them that were later found to be unfounded.
The story began in the early 1990s with the death of James Ryan, a Co Tipperary farmer. Mr Ryan died without having made a will, and a legal dispute broke out among his closest relatives - his three surviving siblings - over the inheritance.
Pat, Nora and Michael Ryan all lived together on the family farm at Bawnmore, just outside Cashel, Co Tipperary. All three were single and well into their 60s.
Michael, who farmed 100 acres of the land, sided with Nora, who kept the house, against Pat.
The row never got to court, and the two sides reached a settlement.
Pat Ryan was still sore about the dispute, and the day after the settlement in 1994, he walked into his solicitors' office and made a will. Pat owned half of the family farm, 90 acres, which he did not farm himself but had rented out to a neighbour, Mr Thomas Ryan. In his will, he left the entire 90 acres, valued then at over €200,000, to Thomas Ryan.
Pat Ryan died in 1997, and when his brother and sister found out about the will, they decided to take legal action.
That case was heard in 1998 in Tipperary Circuit Court before Judge Joseph Matthews, and it lasted a marathon five days, with more than 20 witnesses, including a cousin of Michael and Nora Ryan, Mr Edward Dalton.
The brother and sister's case was that their brother, Pat, was an alcoholic, and was incapable when he made the will.
This was backed up by Mr Dalton, who told the court Pat Ryan had "the mind of a child" and was "led by a silk thread", and whose evidence was to lead to one of the most unusual twists of an increasingly bitter dispute.
The siblings lost their case, and immediately appealed it to the High Court.
In the meantime, Mr Edward Dalton made a sensational complaint to the Courts Service, that he had heard Mr Thomas Ryan's solicitor, a respected Tipperary town lawyer, Mr Kieran T. Flynn, discussing the case with Judge Matthews in the car park of the courthouse, during a break in the proceedings.
The complaint was investigated by the President of the Circuit Court, who rejected the complaint as unfounded. He found that while there had been a conversation, Mr Flynn was discussing the renovation of the courthouse with the judge.
The High Court appeal proceeded, with a hearing at Clonmel in 2000. During the hearing, both sides reached a settlement. Mr Thomas Ryan would keep 40 acres, while the two siblings would get the remaining 50 acres. They would also pay Mr Ryan's costs, estimated to be in the region of €70,000.
The settlement was never fully implemented, however, and relations between the siblings and their neighbour deteriorated further.
The fence dividing the two portions of land was torn down, while the costs were never paid to Thomas Ryan.
Last year, he took a successful High Court action to enforce the previous settlement, getting costs against Mr Michael and Ms Nora Ryan.
In the meantime, the siblings counter-sued, along with their cousin, Mr John Dalton, a brother of Edward, this time against Thomas Ryan's solicitor, Mr Flynn. They claimed he had improperly influenced the 1998 Circuit Court decision, through the conversation Mr Edward Dalton alleged took place.
It was a claim which Mr Flynn was preparing to defend vehemently.
When yesterday's case was struck out, Nora and Michael Ryan, and their cousin John Dalton, faced having to pay the legal bills of both Thomas Ryan and Mr Flynn, estimated to be at least €210,000, on top of their own costs.