A number of vehicles were seen leaving Gorse Hill in Co Dublin tonight, after the Supreme Court earlier refused permission to Brian and Mary Patricia O'Donnell to appeal a decision of the Appeal Court that they do not have the right to live in the house.
The house in Killiney in has been at the centre of a legal dispute with Bank of Ireland.
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal ruled that Mr and Mrs O'Donnell, who owe more than €70m to the bank, did not have a right to live at Gorse Hill and upheld a High Court decision ordering them to vacate the house.
However, they were given a stay until noon tomorrow, to allow the application for an appeal to be made to the Supreme Court.
Since the establishment of the Court of Appeal in October last year, the Supreme Court will only hear a further appeal if it decides it involves a matter of general public importance or if it is necessary in the interests of justice that there be an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Mr and Mrs O'Donnell had asked for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court on a number of grounds.
They claimed the appeal involved a general matter of public importance and was in the interests of justice as it involved the failure of a High Court judge to recuse himself on the grounds of objective bias.
They claimed this addressed fundamental issues under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
They claimed it involved the ability of banks and receivers to obtain a mandatory injunction to gain possession of a family home rather than issue proceedings for possession and have a full hearing on the matter.
They also claimed it concerned fair procedures and rights to fair procedures and right to a fair hearing not being observed by the High Court.
They claimed they were refused time to prepare their case properly and they claimed they were not allowed to cross examine the bank's witnesses.
The O'Donnells further claimed that if the Supreme Court would not grant liberty to appeal and would not give them a further stay on the High Court order then the matter would effectively be determined without the O'Donnells having their right to appeal.
The bank said the Court of Appeal's decision did not involve matters of general public importance and it was not necessary in the interests of justice that there be an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The bank said no new legal issue arose in the decision, let alone an issue of general public importance.
It said the property at Killiney was not a family home but was owned by an Isle of Man company, which had mortgaged its interest in the property as security for substantial commercial borrowings.
The bank said the O'Donnells had their permanent home in England and had not been living in the property up until immediately before the proceedings and they had signed a binding agreement with the benefit of legal advice that they would vacate the property if the security was called in.
The bank also said the O'Donnells had had two full hearings in the High and Appeal Court.
It said their submissions had been fully and comprehensively aired, addressed and dismissed by two courts.
The Supreme Court said the primary issue raised on the application was the entitlement of the bank to an injunction preventing the O'Donnells from trespassing at Gorse Hill.
It said the Court of Appeal applied well-established general principles to the circumstances of the case.
It said the case was not one of general public importance.
The Supreme Court also said the Court of Appeal had identified and applied well-established law on the issue of objective bias in relation to the High Court judge's failure to recuse himself from hearing the case.
The Supreme Court said having considered all the issues set out in the application, from the perspective of fair procedures generally; the court found there was no basis to grant permission to appeal, either on the grounds that the decision involved a matter of general public importance, or that it was necessary in the interests of justice.
The court also found that no legal basis had been established for a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Brian O'Donnell declined to talk to the media tonight after the Supreme Court refused to hear Gorse Hill challenge. https://t.co/t8lvphwGx8
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 28, 2015Jerry Beades of the New Land League has said the O'Donnells have described today's Supreme Court decision as "disappointing".
He said Mr O'Donnell has told him he now intends taking this matter to the European Court of Human Rights.
He said he plans to do so in a matter of days.
Mr Beades has also said that he understands that the O'Donnells will comply with the court order and that they plan to leave Gorse Hill before tomorrow's deadline.
Tonight a van that arrived at the house this evening left shortly before 9.30pm
A car carrying a number of dogs left the premises at the same time.
