High Court refuses appeal on man's land conservation claim, leaving him out of €1.5m

A man who claimed he has suffered a loss of €1.5 million as a result of the alleged illegal designation of part of his land as a candidate for a Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) has failed to appeal the decision to dismiss his case.

Harry McHugh owns land in Cashelgoan, Port Noo, County Donegal, a small portion of which was designated as cSAC in 1997. It was part of an extensive area known as west of Ardara/Maas Road which was designated for this purpose to protect habitat. , animal and plant species.

At the time, Mr McHugh’s uncle, Peter McHugh, owned the land that Harry inherited after Peter’s death in 2002. However, his uncle had not challenged the cSAC designation in 1997.

In 2003, Harry McHugh received a message from the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government stating that the cSAC boundaries needed to be changed.

Mr McHugh was also told that if he wanted to make any significant changes to farming on the lands he would need the Minister’s written permission.

He objected to the designation and sought scientific evidence for it. In 2006, he was notified of another change to the designation and was also given details of how to appeal it, as well as details of a compensation scheme where farmers were affected by the designation.

Mr McHugh objected and demanded compensation, but was unsuccessful as he had in the meantime applied for approval to afforest 28.73 hectares of his land.

That application was rejected because it would negatively alter or damage the area of cSAC.

Mr McHugh brought proceedings in the High Court in 2008, claiming he had suffered a loss of €1.5 million.

Mr McHugh has argued that the receipt of the two notifications in 2003 and 2006 about the changes gave rise to his claim.

He claimed damages for the denial of his afforestation application. He also alleged that the selection criteria used in the designation procedure had been incorrectly applied and were contrary to the law.

Nothing happened with the case until 2014, after which another four years followed during which Mr McHugh filed a number of amended claims.

It eventually ended up before Judge David Nolan, who threw out the case last April.

The judge found that his basis for bringing the case was incorrect as, in the judge’s opinion, Mr McHugh did not have the legal authority (locus standi) to do so.

When he became the beneficial owner of the land in 2002 and thereafter, his legal status was not created by virtue of the receipt of the notice of boundary changes in 2003 and 2006 because the boundary changes did not affect his ownership, the judge said. .

He also discovered that his case had been moved beyond the time limits for filing suits, or that the law had expired.

Mr McHugh applied for an appeal directly to the High Court, rather than going to the Court of Appeal, based on the exceptional circumstances of the case.

In a written ruling, a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court said the Supreme Court’s decision involved the application of established principles regarding locus standi and bringing proceedings out of time.

These matters are case-specific and are not matters of general public interest, the court said.

Mr McHugh has also not set out why an appeal in the interests of justice should be allowed.