A retired businessman has succeeded in his High Court claim that due to a lack of care by their solicitor, he and his daughter did not have absolute title to property in Connemara, which included a deserted Famine village.
Mr Justice Murphy said Mr Paddy Power (72), and Ms Bláithín Power (24), a veterinary student, were entitled to the costs of curing defects in the property's title, which had not yet been quantified. They were also entitled to the cost of investigation and report on title to be agreed or taxed in default of agreement.
However, he added, there was insufficient evidence to support the Powers' claim to be entitled to £1.418 million damages from solicitor Mr Peter Allen and his firm of McDermot and Allen, Francis Street, Galway.
An earlier hearing was told that because of the defects in title and problems of rights of way, the Powers were unable to complete the sale of the property which included the Famine village of Aillenacally, near Roundstone, Co Galway.
Mr Power, following his retirement, had bought a piece of land at Roundstone. In about 1991 he swapped his land for three pieces of property. One of these was the site of the old Famine village which was put in Ms Power's name.
Mr Frank Callanan SC, for the Powers, told an earlier hearing that Mr Allen was instructed by Mr Power in relation to the transaction. A problem arose about access to Ms Power's property. A right of way crossed over commonage in which a number of persons had an interest. This had given rise to difficulties and the transactions in relation to the three properties were not completed effectively for a decade.
Mr Power claimed it was never indicated to him there was a difficulty with title to the properties. Mr Allen claimed the main problem was delays in the Land Registry offices. Mr Power put the property on the market in 1995 but there were no bids.
In 2000 a Belgian businessman said he would buy the properties for £850,000 but did not because the Powers claimed they could not show good title to the properties.
In a reserved judgment, Mr Justice Murphy said he was not satisfied that the Belgian's offer was evidence of the property's value with title registered in conformity with the contract. There was no satisfactory evidence of the value of the property as currently registered.
The measure of damages was the cost of curing the difference in value between the present title and that contracted for. The underlying value of the land had increased significantly even if there was some evidence of values decreasing marginally in the past year.
The Powers were entitled to the cost of curing these defects.