On 8th July, 2005 Mr. Justice Paul Gilligan declared Keelgrove Properties Limited to be the lawful owner of a site in central Dublin on the Moore Street side of a substantial development. The dispute between Keelgrove Properties Limited and Shelbourne Development Limited related to ownership of a plot of ground at Moore Street, Dublin, referred to in Court during the hearing of the matter as a "tooth" missing from a commercial building built by Shelbourne on a site bounded by Moore Street, Parnell Street, Moore Lane and O'Rahilly Parade.

In 1997, Keelgrove and Shelbourne were both attempting to put together a development site by buying up a large number of small sites and dilapidated buildings. Both had attempted to buy No. 30 Moore Street, which had been a poulterer's shop until 1986 but which was, by then, a vacant site. Shelbourne, having failed to buy the land, later disputed Keelgrove's legal title and asserted that it had acquired title by adverse possession.

In 2003 Keelgrove instructed LK Shields Solicitors (Edmund Butler, Partner and Jennifer Clarke, Associate Solicitor) to commence High Court proceedings to establish its legal ownership of the land. While the action was pending, Shelbourne built around the disputed site leaving what was variously referred to as the "tooth" and a "very tall hand-ball alley" in the side of the building.

At the commencement of the hearing on 22nd June last Mr. Senan Allen S.C. for Keelgrove, told the Court that Shelbourne now admitted Keelgrove's title to the site but sought to establish that it and its predecessors in title had been in adverse possession.

Mr. Dan Sullivan of Springfield Road, Templeogue, Dublin 6W, told Counsel for Shelbourne, that after the shop was demolished by Dublin Corporation he had used the site for parking cars but that he had the permission of the then owner, a Mr. Brazil, to do so. In an Affidavit filed some time ago Mr. Sullivan had been unable to recall that in 1989 he had signed an acknowledgement that he had no claim over the property but in evidence, on the 22nd June, 2005, he remembered signing the acknowledgment.

Mr. Frank Kinsella, who managed a car park on behalf of Shelbourne from 1997 until 2003, did not dispute that a trailer which had been parked on the disputed site had been moved at the request of Keelgrove and said that, on the instructions of Shelbourne, he had cordoned of the "tooth area" with a ribbon and prevented cars from being parked on it. Following legal submissions on 23rd June 2005 as to the legal consequences of the history of the disputed site, Mr. Justice Gilligan said that he would reserve judgment.

On 8th July, 2005 when delivering his judgment Mr. Justice Gilligan stated inter alia that there was no question of Mr. Sullivan's usage of Number 30 from 1989 through to 1997 being "adverse possession" and declared that Keelgrove was the lawful owner. Mr. Justice Gilligan also made an order of costs in favour of Keelgrove.

14th July 2005.