Rocca faces hefty legal bill after dropping case
MICHELLE Rocca faces a punitive legal bill after withdrawing her High Court case against her neighbours – who claimed she had made their life a ‘living hell’.
Ms Rocca, the estranged wife of Van Morrison, backed out yesterday just as she was due to resume testifying on the fifth day of her action over her neighbours planting shrubbery which she didn’t want blocking her sea view.
She claimed she wanted to protect the view from her luxury mansion on Sorrento Road in Dalkey, south Co. Dublin.
Yesterday Ms Rocca did not appear in court, but her counsel, Mark Sanfey, said his client ‘has decided she does not want to proceed with her claim.’
Her neighbours, Conor and Eileen Kavanagh, smiled and kissed after the action was dismissed by Justice David Keane. Mr Kavanagh said: ‘We are happy it’s all over and done with.’
The Kavanaghs’ barrister, Esmonde Keane SC, asked the judge to rule that former model Ms Rocca pay not only all the usual costs of the case, but also any expense incurred by the Kavanaghs’ solicitors.
‘It’s no exaggeration to say this has basically become close to a living hell for my clients,’ he said, adding Ms Rocca had played ‘ducks and drakes’ with both the court and the Kavanaghs. ‘The court should mark its opprobrium of this type of conduct, in circumstances where for the last six years my clients’ enjoyment of their home and their inability to finish the garden of their primary residence has been utterly tarnished by this frivolous and vexatious action.’
Mr Keane said his clients had spent ‘ significant time and expense’ in preparing to fight elements of Ms Rocca’s claim which were then withdrawn on the first day of the action.
He said they should not be ‘left significantly out of pocket’. These included claims regarding a vehicular right of way over the drive, and an order to remove a window from their home. He said the litigation had caused ‘considerable expense and considerable distress and upset’ to his clients. And he said the Kavanaghs’ garden had been left with an area of ‘wasteland’ pending the resolution of the case, which he said they should be properly compensated for.
He added that Ms Rocca had not had the approval of the original owner of the house, Van Morrison, in taking the action.
This claim was disputed by Ms Rocca’s lawyer. Over the week- end, Van Morrison was reported to have issued a statement in which he sought to distance himself from the court action.
He said he had been legally separated from Ms Rocca, who now calls herself Michelle Morrison, since September 2013 and added: ‘I have never lived in Kilross House.’
Ms Rocca’s lawyer said the additional order being sought that she pay all solicitors’ costs was an excessive punishment.
Mr Justice Keane said he would deliver his judgment on the issue of costs in a matter of weeks.
‘Frivolous and vexatious action’