A JUDGE has relied on what he believed would be a message from the grave to solve a bitter dispute between the family of a dead man and his now 80-year-old former partner.
Judge Matthew Deery, granting Peggy Morrison a lifelong right of residence in the couple’s home, said he doubted that if her late partner Bernard Timmins could be with them in court, he would have wanted to see the woman whose life he had shared for 23 years deprived of a roof over her head.
Mr Justice Deery, president of the Circuit Court, said it was unfortunate Ms Morrison’s fight for a right of residence “had come to this”.
He said her case against Mr Timmins’s daughter, Marilyn Black, and his sons Bernard jnr and John, all of whom had been left the house, had been a bruising encounter for her in court.
Ms Black, in her position of executrix of Mr Timmins’s estate, had specifically been named as defendant in the proceedings.
“Things have been said in this court that will leave a scar,” Mr Justice Deery said.
“The late Mr Timmins would hardly have stated in this situation that Ms Morrison had not provided him with a degree of comfort, security and companionship.”
He told barrister Brendan Watchorn SC, counsel for Ms Morrison, that she was entitled to a right of residence and the costs of her legal bid to obtain it.
The judge said Ms Morrison and Mr Timmins, a widower, had met at work in October 1986 and he had invited her out for a drink. They had struck up a relationship which had culminated in her having moved in with him in 1995.
In 2000 he had developed cancer and she had told the court of having cared for him, during years of debility, until his death in October 2009.
During their time together he had led her to believe she would have a lifetime right of residence in the house.
Mr Justice Deery said Ms Morrison had been told in January last year (2010) by Ms Black that the house and contents were for sale and that there would be a complete clearance. Mr Timmins had made his will in 1988, only two years after meeting Ms Morrison, and there had been no mention of her in it.
He said Ms Morrison had received assurances from Ms Black’s solicitor that there was no plan to evict her and she had been out of the house while an inventory of contents was being taken. When she returned she found the locks had been changed.
Mr Timmins’s son John had been in the house and had told her she could not come in. He had pushed two-day supply of her tablets out through the letterbox to her and she had to sleep elsewhere on a couch for two nights until a court directed she be allowed back in.
Mr Justice Deery said Ms Black and Bernard Timmins jnr had told the court the live-in relationship had been volatile and alleged Ms Morrison had been abusive to their father. They said they had seen bruises on his shins and arms.
Ms Morrison had denied having been abusive but had told the court she stood up for herself when Mr Timmins would have drink on him. “Even at 80 today Ms Morrison is able to be independent and give a good account of herself,” Mr Justice Deery said.