A JUDGE has described as “frankly shocking” the length of time it has taken for litigation concerning the will of an Ennis farmer who died in 2012.
By Bernie English
Presiding in the High Court in Limerick on Wednesday Ms Justice Siobhan Stack said that one of the parties in the proceedings was “deliberately dishonest in her evidence,” in a previous hearing.
Judge Stack last week upheld a decision of the Circuit Court to condemn the final will of an 81-year-old Patrick Hogan, ruling that he lacked the mental capacity to change his affairs in the final weeks of his life.
The farmer from Bushy Park, Ennis, died in April 2012 leaving a 120-acre farm, livestock, and entitlements valued at over €1.5m.
Shortly before his death, Mr Hogan signed a will on April 4, 2012, leaving almost everything to one of his daughters, Peggy Kierse.
His sons, Gordon and Norman Hogan, challenged the April will and last week Ms Justice Stack last week affirmed the Circuit Court’s decision to condemn that document.
In a 2008 will, Mr Hogan had arranged to split his assets between his son Gordon’s family and Peggy.
The matter was up for mention in the High Court sitting at Merchant’s Quay in Limerick on Wednesday, where Ms Justice Stack said she would make orders concerning the matter in Dublin on March 12.
She advised the two sons, Gordon and Norman Hogan who did not have legal representation at the High Court to get representation before facing into the maze of probation and land registry.
When the matter of who would pay legal costs was raised, there were applications to strike out costs awarded in the Circuit Court against Peggy Kierse and another person.
Ms Justice Stack agreed that the second named person was acting in her given role as the executor of the will and as such, while named as a defendant, should not be liable for costs.
But she said that she would not set aside the order for costs against Ms Kierse.
‘The allegations made in these proceedings are very serious,” the Judge said. Referring to her findings from the previous hearing in the court in Dublin, Ms Justice Stack said that “I made a finding that Ms Kierse was deliberately dishonest in her evidence to me. She thought that she could come in and spin a tale and there are consequences to that”.
She adjourned making any further orders in the case to her sitting in Dublin in March and explained this was for logistical reasons.
Ms Justice Stack said that “one thing which concerns me is the length of time this has taken. We are dealing with a death in 2012”. The judge expressed her hope that the March 12 court date “will bring this interminable delay to an end”.
Hearing the evidence in Dublin previously, the judge noted there was “no satisfactory evidence” as to why the farmer suddenly abandoned his original views on how to distribute his property.
The court carefully considered the state of Mr Hogan’s health during the final weeks of his life. While the judge accepted expert evidence that he did not have dementia, she noted that he was facing the combined strain of terminal lung cancer and the side effects of strong pain medication.
She heard that these conditions led to episodes of “delirium”. Family members, including his sister Florence Chambers, whom the judge described as a “wholly reliable witness,” testified that by late 2011, Mr Hogan was generally “unable to maintain the thread of a conversation for more than five minutes or so”.
Ultimately, the court found that this prolonged period of ill-health meant he was not in a position to fully grasp the complexities of his estate or the legal changes being proposed in his final weeks.
