A dispute about who owns a valuable three-acre site beside Dublin's CityWest hotel and conference centre complex is holding up plans for a €50 million housing development, it has been claimed in the Commercial Court.
Two companies claim ownership of the land at Garter’s Lane, Saggart, which is earmarked for a development of 224 housing units for which planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála last December.
The hotel and conference centre operators and owners, Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited, say they own the land. They have obtained permission to build the residential development which they say will provide significant affordable housing and deliver a large range of amenities for the local community.
But a company called Clapton (Ireland) Ltd says it owns the land.
As result Cape Wrath has sued Clapton seeking a declaration Cape is the owner, an injunction preventing trespass and damages, among other things.
The case was admitted to the High Court's fast track Commercial Court on consent between the parties by Mr Justice David Barniville.
Cape Wrath director, Michael McElligott, says in April 1998 the then owner of the land sold it, in two separate conveyances, to two companies, HSS Ltd and Winterblue Ltd.
Mr McElligott says, in an affidavit, said Cape Wrath acquired the land in 2014 from a receiver of HSS, which was the former operator of City West before into receivership in 2010.
Clapton then asserted its title to the land derived from the 1998 transfer to Winterblue from the previous owner.
Corporate reorganisation
Mr McElligott said there is no map attached to the deed which Clapton asserts title to whereas there is a map with the deed for HSS. As part of the transfer of the land to Cape Wrath, and the corporate reorganisation of its parent, Alva Glen Holdings Ltd, a sum of €5.2 million was paid.
After Cape Wrath submitted its planning application for housing, Clapton claimed ownership and also made a submission in the planning process that it was legal owner, he said.
Following a proposal from Clapton, mediation to resolve the matter was unsuccessful.
Clapton failed repeatedly to provide Cape Wrath with a copy of the deed which asserted its title, Mr McElligott said. Cape Wrath obtained the deed itself which it says shows Clapton could not have acquired title, he said.
Clapton continued to assert title, provided a valuation saying the land was worth around €9.6 million, and refused to confirm it would not continue to dispute Cape Wrath's claim or that it would not attempt to interfere with its efforts to implement its housing permission, he said.
He said the position is clear from the deeds that Clapton never acquired the land in the first place.
