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[Article] Lesbian couple in dispute over house proceeds

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  • 15-03-2003 12:27am
    #1
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,245 ✭✭✭✭


    From:The Irish Independent
    Friday, 14th March, 2003
    Ray Managh

    A COURT has been asked to settle a dispute between a lesbian couple over the proceeds from their €470,000 former home in Dublin.

    Judge Patricia Ryan heard yesterday that Theresa Murtagh, now of Monksfield Heights, Clondalkin, was seeking a 50pc interest in a house she shared with Elizabeth Kelly, Woodstown Road, Knocklyon.

    When asked if the matter should not be properly dealt with in the family law courts, Daithe Mac Carthaigh, counsel for Ms Kelly, said lesbian relationships were not recognised under Irish law.

    Cormac O Dulachain, SC, counsel for Ms Murtagh, told the court the couple had not merely been lodgers but had a shared life.

    Ms Murtagh told the court in an affidavit she had started a relationship with Ms Kelly in 1984 and had begun co-habiting first in rented and then in "joint interest" property.

    They had lived in the Knocklyon house until their break-up in October 2000.

    She said the properties had been registered in Ms Kelly's name, but it had always been agreed and understood from the outset that they both had a 50pc interest in each of the properties in which they had co-habited.

    Ms Murtagh said the Knocklyon property had now been sold and she was deeply concerned that her half-interest would be dissipated by Ms Kelly. She is seeking an injunction freezing her share.

    Ms Kelly told the court the Knocklyon house had been sold for €471,000 and €327,000 remained following the discharge of outstanding debts. She had no intention of dissipating the net proceeds.

    She claimed to have been the main wage earner and payer of property and household bills and said she had bought Ms Murtagh cars and taken her on holidays.

    Their relationship had broken up after she became suspicious Ms Murtagh was involved in an affair with another woman.

    Ms Kelly denied in her affidavit she had banned Ms Murtagh from the Knocklyon house and alleged that on one occasion she had conducted a "sit-in" which had ended only on the arrival of gardai.

    Judge Ryan, on an undertaking by Ms Kelly not to dispose of the disputed proceeds, adjourned Ms Murtagh's application to allow her to enter a replying affidavit.


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    #2
    STaN
    Registered Users Posts: 2,127 ✭✭✭STaN


    Any updates on this? I'm sure it has ramafications for allot of people.


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    #3
    Kell
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,479 ✭✭✭Kell


    No update Stan, but I for one was annoyed as to the way the article was phrased. Why were the couple termed "Lesbian Couple" as opposed to just "Couple"?


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    #4
    yossarin
    Registered Users Posts: 932 ✭✭✭yossarin


    because "couple" implies marrage or some other legal right under the law, which these people don't have. thats the whole issue isn't it ?
    Is common law marrage a legal entity in Ireland ?

    also, no new info - nothing on the web anyway...


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    #5
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,245 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Originally posted by yossarin
    Is common law marrage a legal entity in Ireland ?
    Common law marriages have all the "rights" single people have, however they are not seen as equal to married rights (inheritence, next of kin and so on) notable exceptions may be income tax and social welfare.


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    #6
    Kell
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,479 ✭✭✭Kell


    Originally posted by yossarin
    because "couple" implies marrage or some other legal right under the law,

    couple (TWO PEOPLE) group noun [C] two people who are married OR in a romantic or sexual relationship, or two people who are together for a particular purpose: From the Cambridge dictionary.

    I dont feel the press should have titled the article in the way that it did as it drew attention the to fact that it was a lesbian couple as opposed to any other couple. I thought the whole ideology of the gay community was to be generally accepted by non gay people, nor seen as different to any other non-gay relationship, so why not be píssed at the article header?


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    #7
    yellum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,025 ✭✭✭yellum


    Originally posted by Kell

    I dont feel the press should have titled the article in the way that it did as it drew attention the to fact that it was a lesbian couple as opposed to any other couple. I thought the whole ideology of the gay community was to be generally accepted by non gay people, nor seen as different to any other non-gay relationship, so why not be píssed at the article header?

    Its true I guess, but its the same for everything gay and lesbian, the sexuality thing will presently (hopefully not always) be highlighted above everything else.

    You will get stories like:

    GAY MAN SAVES WORLD
    "Gay man John Q Smith who also just happened to save the world from an evil opressor blah bah blah blah etc "


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