A judge has strongly criticised the “behaviour and attitude” of parties involved in a High Court action over the Christian Brothers’ plans to sell part of a south Dublin secondary school’s playing grounds to builders for €18 million.
In her ruling on a preliminary issue, Ms Justice Carmel Stewart said she had an “extremely dim view” of the manner in which both sides have behaved in proceedings concerning Clonkeen College, Deansgrange.
Members of the college’s board of management have sued the congregation of Christian Brothers, which set up the school, in an attempt to retain the playing fields for as long as the school remains in operation. The congregation denies the proposed sale will adversely affect the 520 pupil school.
The case began on March 16th but currently stands adjourned. In her preliminary ruling, the judge said she would permit the board of management to be joined to the case as a co-plaintiff with the individual board members.
The application was made by the individual board members and opposed by the congregation.
The judge said this was the second preliminary ruling on an issue raised during the hearing. In a previous ruling, she refused to substitute the individual board members for the board of management.
‘At a loss’
Another application, arising from that ruling and aimed at striking out the case, remains outstanding. The judge said “the value of a frank and honest approach to litigation cannot be underestimated” and she was “at a loss” to understand why issues “evident for months” were “not progressed at an earlier juncture”.
It “beggars belief that the parties did not seek to have matters regularised earlier,” she said. The position now is that a hearing that commenced in mid-March has been “delayed for almost two months” and “one side was as problematic as the other.”
While accepting both sides think they are right and have the best interests of the school in mind, both had resorted to improper tactics and had “placed the court in a most invidious position”, she said. Both sides had “recruited eminent and highly respected counsel to act as the unwitting maestros in this song and dance routine”.
The court was prepared to overlook the “improper activity” that has taken place and deal with the application in its entirety, she said. Adjourning the matter to next month, she urged the parties to “regularise their behaviour and progress this litigation in earnest.”
Licence
The playing fields are held by trustees acting on behalf of the congregation and are subject of a five-year licence for sporting use. The licence was granted by the trustees to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, which owns Clonkeen College. The plaintiffs have challenged the €18 million deal where the congregation is to sell seven acres of the playing fields to builder Patrick Durkan Snr.
Under the deal, the school will receive €1.3 million and will retain one area for use as a playing pitch but the plaintiffs say it is unsuitable and they were kept in the dark over the deal.
They claim the sale breaches a 2006 agreement with the congregation whose terms included the playing fields would remain available for the school.
The congregation denies entering into any agreement in 2006 as alleged and says it has a binding contract to sell the lands and intends to make significant charitable donations from the proceeds.