COURT HEARING:RTÉ BROADCASTER Pat Kenny is to buy the lands in Dalkey, Co Dublin, which were at the centre of the bitter legal dispute with his neighbour, as part of the settlement of the row. Mr Kenny says he will maintain the lands as a nature reserve.
The High Court heard yesterday that the 2½-year dispute between Mr Kenny and his neighbour, retired solicitor Gerard Charlton, over the lands at Gorse Hill was over after mediation talks at the weekend proved successful.
Mr Charlton and his wife Maeve had initiated the legal action against Mr Kenny and his wife Kathy. The dispute was over ownership of the 0.2 acre of lands of Gorse Hill, described as a "rocky outcrop" and "urban wilderness", adjoining their homes in an "idyllic" residential enclave of Dalkey, Co Dublin.
The Charltons claimed they owned the land, while the Kennys contended they had, since 1991, established entitlement to the land through adverse possession or "squatters' rights".
The case, initiated in 2006, was settled yesterday without the terms being read to the court, but both sides told reporters afterwards that Mr Kenny and his wife Kathy had agreed to buy Gorse Hill.
It is estimated the legal costs will be substantial, as the case involved considerable pre-trial hearings, but the settlement involves both sides paying their own costs.
The case opened last Tuesday and the trial judge, Ms Justice Maureen Clark, visited the Gorse Hill site on Thursday. On Friday afternoon, she made what Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, for Mr Charlton, described yesterday as an "inspired" suggestion that the case go to mediation.
Appealing to the parties to consider mediation, the judge stressed the case was about to go into evidence. Anything that was said from then on could not be unsaid but the sides would still have to be neighbours afterwards.
When the case was called yesterday morning, Mr Fitzsimons, with Brian Murray SC, said he was very pleased to say the parties had settled following successful mediation involving Rory Brady SC.
The former attorney general was approached by the legal teams to act as an independent mediator last Saturday.
Brian O'Moore SC, with Lyndon MacCann SC and Thomas McCann SC, for the Kennys, said that when the judge made her intervention last Friday, the Kennys had not "had their day in court".
Only the opening address by the other side had been heard at that stage as was the normal course, he said.
However, notwithstanding that, the force of what Ms Justice Clark had said had had "a deep impact" on both sides and Mr Brady had carried out mediation over a 10-hour period on Sunday, Mr O'Moore added.
Ms Justice Clark read Mr Brady's report on the mediation to the court. Mr Brady said he had held numerous meetings with the Charltons and Kennys, along with their legal advisers, during which he discussed the views and recollections which gave rise to the dispute.
He was conscious of the fact that neither side had given evidence in the case, he said.
The fact that they had agreed to an independent mediator was a genuine sign of a desire on both sides to resolve their differences, Mr Brady added.
There was no doubt in his mind that both sides had a real sense of grievance about how they were treated and this had intensified with each new act or statement and added to "an unhealthy and unwelcomed tension".
Neither family ever wished to be in dispute but, as events unfolded, it "became inevitable that matters would come to a head".
Mr Brady said he was impressed by the desire of both families to bring finality to their disputes in "an honourable way", to restore the privacy of their families and to unburden their lives from the intrusion of litigation and publicity.
Mr Brady said he was satisfied both sides genuinely believed they had legal right on their side, that the disputed land was theirs and that it had to be protected and secured from the other side.
The discussion of the issues with him by both sides "in complete candour" had enabled a successful outcome to the mediation.
Ms Justice Clark said she was very happy with the outcome and she agreed to a request from both sides to strike out the Charlton claim and the Kenny counter-claim and to make an order vacating all previous legal cost orders.
She gave liberty to apply to the court to enforce the terms of the settlement.