Meath County Council wrongfully demolished a house built without planning permission in circumstances where the homeowners had an application pending at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in respect of the property, it has been alleged.
After a legal battle spanning two decades, Rose and Chris Murray’s house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, Navan, was demolished in March, after the High Court gave the council the go-ahead to knock it.
In an application before Judge David Nolan on Thursday, lawyers for the Murrays sought various reliefs, including court declarations stating the council’s actions, in moving to demolish the building in March, breached obligations under European human rights laws.
The Murrays also challenged a finding last March that they were in contempt of 2020 court undertakings to vacate their property.
Lawyers for the council submitted that the court did not have jurisdiction to grant the reliefs sought by the Murrays, and denied their claims.
Solicitor Neil McNelis, for the Murrays, argued that an application by the Murrays to the ECHR earlier this year should effectively have operated as a stay on the demolition of the house. (The court heard the application was ultimately rejected.)
Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides for the bringing of applications to the ECHR alleging a violation of human rights. Under the same article, the State – or in the case of Meath County Council, organs of the State – cannot “hinder” applicants seeking to bring such an application, McNelis submitted.
The demolition in March of the house, the subject matter of the Murrays’ application to the ECHR, was hindrance, McNelis submitted.
The solicitor submitted that Meath County Council should have notified the Attorney General before proceeding with the demolition, in circumstances where the Murrays had made an application to the ECHR.
A situation where an organ of the State can disregard Article 34 and “commit acts of oppression” was “not right”, he said.
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Deirdre Hughes, barrister for Meath County Council, told the judge the Murrays’ applications to the ECHR had all been refused.
She submitted that the court did not have jurisdiction, in the context of planning enforcement proceedings, to make the orders sought by the Murrays.
She said the issues raised by the Murrays had already been dealt with by the courts, including in a recent decision of Judge Richard Humphreys in March.
Hughes pointed to Humphreys’ observation that the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, an Irish law, does not give effect as a whole to the European Convention on Human Rights. Humphreys noted that an application to the ECHR under Article 34 “does not in itself create domestic legal effects”.
Hughes submitted that even if the court was minded to grant declarations sought by the Murrays, such an order could not restrain a demolition order.
The judge reserved his judgment.
The council is seeking costs of the demolition against the couple, plus its legal costs.
The council’s overall bill across the 20-year process stands at more than €683,000, including costs of securing the property while demolition works proceeded.
The legal saga began after the Murrays, having been refused planning permission in June 2006 for a dormer bungalow at Faughan Hill, built a property on the same site later that year that was 588sq m, twice the size they had originally proposed.
The council initiated enforcement action in 2007 and proceedings ran over some two decades, including in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.