Courts Continue To Crack Down On Litigation Delays

• Published date: 26 July 2021
• Law Firm: Dillon Eustace
• Author: Ms Rachel Turner

Two recent judgments of the High Court, dismissing proceedings for inordinate and inexcusable delay, are indicative of the courts' continuing approach to the failure to observe time limits in litigation.

In Kennedy v. Wexford County Council and Priority Construction Company Limited [2021] IEHC 187, the High Court struck out, on the grounds of inordinate and inexcusable delay, a plaintiff's action claiming damages for trespass and nuisance. In his judgment, Owens J. observed that "all plaintiffs are taken to know that where an action is commenced long after the events giving rise to the cause of action, they have a positive obligation to advance proceedings to trial with expedition."

The plaintiff's proceedings concerned the alleged unauthorised dumping of waste on the plaintiff's field in late 2001 and early 2002 and whether the first defendant could be deemed to be responsible for the act of an independent contractor. Proceedings were commenced in October 2007 in circumstances where the...