A legal firm representing defective block homeowners in Donegal say that some of their lead cases have now reached an “advanced stage”.
Coleman Legal provided an update in a statement to homeowners today, with thousands of affected homeowners pursuing group legal action against a number of companies alleged to be the source of defective blocks in County Donegal.
“The Lead Cases in the Group Litigation are now well advanced in the Commercial Division of the High Court.”
“The long series of Pleadings (in other words the formal court documents setting out the particulars of each party’s case) have now been exchanged.”
“We have all but agreed the documents that will be provided in the Discovery process. A review of these documents will be undertaken as soon as they have been delivered, which could take a number of months.”
The law firm has also provided updates on a number of aspects of their cases, including that no challenge to the legality of the funding of the group litigation has been formally delivered to the court by the defendants in the case, meaning the litigation can continue.
Samples taken from the Gransha Quarry during an inspection last year will now be tested, after prior objections from the defendants in the case.
“You may recall that the inspection of the Gransha Quarry took place in early November. The Defendants have since raised objections to the samples being sent for testing which we have addressed at length,” Coleman Legal said.
“The Court has previously indicated that if the Defendants wished to formally challenge the testing, they would need to make a formal application within a certain time.”
“That date has now passed and the Defendants have chosen not to make any such application. We are now aiming to send the samples for testing in the coming week or two.”
Coleman Legal also say they are continuing efforts to include testing of the properties of lead defendant’s homes in their case.
“We are also attempting to agree the terms of testing the Lead Plaintiffs’ properties with the Defendants. However, we are not currently receiving any positive engagement from them.”
“We will continue our efforts to advance this aspect of testing.”
