Serial objectors are accused of a ‘shakedown’ by building f irm
TWO serial objectors to planning applications have lost a bid to strike out a case brought against them by a construction firm, which has accused them of a ‘shakedown’.
High Court Judge Richard Humphreys said Glenveagh Homes had contended that an insurance consultant and a retired bank clerk had made a large number of planning observations and appeals in a bid to ‘extort’ Glenveagh to buy land at an inflated price.
Glenveagh had sued the pair for up to €8million in damages for the costs it alleged it had incurred.
The two defendants, Pat Lynch and Denise Leavy of Batterstown, Proudstown, Co. Meath had applied to strike out the case.
They had claimed that the house builder’s case was a SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation), which the judge described as a type of lawsuit designed to silence critics.
They claimed the proceedings were calculated to intimidate, persecute and punish them for making valid planning submissions.
They noted that Glenveagh was seeking ‘gross excessive damages of €8million’ and a permanent injunction restraining them from making any submissions or observations on any future planning applications by Glenveagh.
In response, Glenveagh said the case was a matter which required evidence to be given at trial, before a court could fairly reach any decision.
‘If a court makes any orders, it will have done so on the basis of evidence before it,’ it stated.
‘In such circumstances, the defendants could not legitimately claim to be intimidated, persecuted or punished, in circumstances where the court would have found a civil wrong has occurred.’ The construction firm also said that the defendants had made further observations on its planning applications after it had launched its case against them.
The court has previously seen a sworn statement from Glenveagh’s chief executive, Stephen Garvey, in which he said the proceedings concerned a ‘business dispute’, which the defendants had wrongly characterised as being a SLAPP.
He alleged their planning submissions had been made under ‘fictitious aliases’ and were ‘highly targeted’ at Glenveagh’s developments.
Mr Garvey said an estate agent had approached Glenveagh asking it to purchase
Mr Lynch’s lands at Clonmagadden, Navan, Co. Meath, for a price ‘well in excess of open market value’.
The developer refused to buy the site but later met Mr Lynch in an attempt to negotiate a sale, following which an agreement in principle was reached for a price of €7.8 million, Mr Garvey added.
Around the time Glenveagh was refusing to pay over and above market value, planning observations began to be lodged in the name of Denis Leavy, D Leavy and DM Leavy, he said.
From March 2021 to June 2023, Mr Garvey said, the ‘fictional/contrived pseudonyms’, and later Mr Lynch, filed 17 observations and five appeals on planning applications.
The defendants had objected to 35% of 49 Glenveagh planning applications, most of which were outside the defendants’ locality, he alleged.
He said the pair’s ‘campaign’ had led to ‘considerable, unexpected difficulty’ with the delivery of residential schemes in Meath, Dublin, Louth, Westmeath, Kildare and Waterford.
He said the firm had engaged with the defendants to try to stop the planning submissions, but they ‘continue to be a nuisance to our business’.
Judge Humphreys said the case raised complex issues that were more appropriate to a trial. The case will be listed for further mention again later this month.
‘Submissions made under aliases’