A High Court Judge has indicated he wants to see a multi-action case involving homes with defective blocks “brought to a head.”
In a significant development yesterday, Cassidy Brothers Ltd came under increased pressure in its defence in the defective concrete blocks multi-action case of the Commercial Court.
The legal case, brought by Coleman Legal on behalf of Defective Blocks Ireland CLG, has seen repeated failures by Cassidy Brothers to meet previous deadlines with discovery orders.
Two weeks ago, Mr Justice Denis McDonald of the Commercial Court issued a final deadline of Wednesday, December 18, for Cassidy Brothers to comply with the Court’s discovery order.
This ultimatum came after the company had already missed three previous cutoff dates.
Justice McDonald had warned that failure to meet this deadline would result in granting the plaintiff Coleman Legal’s request to issue a motion to strike out Cassidy’s defence.
At yesterday’s hearing, it was confirmed that Cassidy Brothers had not engaged further regarding discovery.
The company’s solicitor, Mr Eamonn Dillon, was absent due to hospitalisation. A newly-appointed barrister for Cassidy’s, Ms Ní Ghormáin, sought another extension from the Court.
Cassidy Brothers has cited difficulties in complying with the discovery requirements due to the voluminous documentation involved. The company previously informed the Court that it had been quoted €100,000 by a specialist company to carry out the process of uploading vast amounts of documentation to a digital format.
Ben Clarke SC, representing Coleman Legal, emphasised the repeated delays and the Court’s previous indications. He requested that the motion to strike out the defence be listed for hearing on January 20, highlighting the importance of bringing the matter to a conclusion.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey, newly presiding over the High Court case, expressed dissatisfaction with the ongoing delays.
He said “This has gone on long enough and it is not terribly satisfactory to be told that the reason why a third party service provider hasn’t observed the orders of the Court is because there is a lot of documentation.” He added, “I think it is time that this was brought to a head.”
Mr. Justice Sanfey confirmed that no further time extensions would be granted and a motion to strike out Cassidy’s defence may be brought before the next hearing of the Commercial Court on January 20th.
Mr. Justice Sanfey asked that all details of the third-party specialist employed to collate the thousands of documents required for discovery be made available to the Coleman Legal team.
The case continues to be closely watched, with significant implications for the affected homeowners in Donegal.
The next hearing on January 20 is expected to be a critical juncture in this long-running legal battle.