Mr Justice Garrett Simons said “it beggars belief” that Master Edmund Honohan, despite various court decisions that he had no power to do so, had continued to make orders striking out special summonses such as the one brought by Permanent TSB against Geoffrey Carr over the repossession of land and a house at Carney Commons, Carney, Co Tipperary.
“This course of conduct on the part of the Master simply serves to increase legal costs unnecessarily and to cause delay”, Mr Justice Simons said in a High Court judgment on Monday.
It had “no practical benefit whatsoever” and the Master’s order may, in some instances, give defendants a “false sense” of hope, he said.
Those defendants may mistakenly think there had been a lawful adjudication on the merits of their case and that it had been resolved in their favour.
“In truth, the only forum which can adjudicate upon an application for an order for possession, by way of special summons, is the High Court,” he said.
The Master did not have an adjudicative function in this regard. “To state the obvious, the Master does not hold judicial office,” he added.
The decision by the President of t he High Court to remove mortgage debt cases from the Master of the High Court has been described in the Dáil as “deeply sinister and worrying”.
Master Edmund Honohan had been dealing with up to 200 cases a week involving claims over debts but last week Mr Justice Kelly removed all debt cases from the Master to be directly assigned to a High Court judge.
People Before Profit Richard Boyd Barrett said Mr Honohan had challenged the “ruthlessness of banks”.
“He called them out.”
He said the move to remove debt cases from the Master was “deeply sinister and worrying”.
Earlier Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said it was an “absolute scandal”....
....
Mr McGuinness said Edmund Honohan had “done this State a hell of a service”.
He had been “ fair to the banks, fair to the borrowers, creating a level playing field”, but had been removed from that task by the President of the High Court.
“It is an absolute scandal,” he said. “I was astonished last week to learn that the newspaper leading it knew before he did and then to try and compound the problems for the Master, certain comments made by other judges (were) put out into the public domain to discredit him.”
Mr McGuinness said Edmund Honohan had “done this State a hell of a service”.
He had been “ fair to the banks, fair to the borrowers, creating a level playing field”, but had been removed from that task by the President of the High Court.
“It is an absolute scandal,” he said. “I was astonished last week to learn that the newspaper leading it knew before he did and then to try and compound the problems for the Master, certain comments made by other judges (were) put out into the public domain to discredit him.”...
...
Asked by Leas Cheann Comhairle to refrain from criticising the judiciary Mr McGuinness said: “I’ll refrain now that I’ve condemned them completely for the carry on of them down in the Four Courts and for the manner in which they have treated that individual.”
Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice also criticised the removal of debt cases from the Master.
He wasn't actually - he repeated acted outside his jurisdiction. Much to the embarrassment of the Courts service. To suggest otherwise is delusional....he is one of the few actually doing his job without fear or favour.
he is one of the few actually doing his job without fear or favour.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons said “it beggars belief” that Master Edmund Honohan, despite various court decisions that he had no power to do so, had continued to make orders striking out special summonses such as the one brought by Permanent TSB against Geoffrey Carr over the repossession of land and a house at Carney Commons, Carney, Co Tipperary.
Does it matter who met who
Didn't Martin Mc Guinness etc sit down with Ian Paisley
if the master had dinner with a load of bankers to discuss evictions, there would be uproar
It might not necessarily be an april fool........as it is worth pointing out that 'we do not know if the Master of the High Court has not or indeed has met with bankers to discuss evictions over dinner or indeed tapas!!' there's a thought for us all - we are not in the know...... In any event at the end of the day he seems to see the value of human lives over monetary gain....we might ask to have our coffins lined with it but we certainly can't take it with us - Is it not the case that a plethora of Irish banks overcharged customers in the tracker scandal...so the bank employees are not always right, and their barristers as they stand in the Master's Court know less about the case in their hands than Edmund Honohan - because he unlike they have read all the papers!! To be honest I'm surprised they didn't take the debt cases away from him before now...Justice Kelly must have been triple checking the HR manual! I wonder did he read it all!
Hi Dazzler
That is a much better comparison.
It would make a good April Fool's story. "Master Honohan advises Irish Mortgage Federation on a new Bill to speed up evictions"
Brendan
I don't believe that's 100% accurate. Where the mortgage is still in place, as it's a breach of a still active contract, it cannot be statute barred. There are several other reasons where they wouldn't have won in court, but statute of limitations isn't the main one.would not win in Court as they are statute barred.
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