Barrister who took vexatious case against judge sues other members of the judiciary

A barrister found to have taken frivolous and vexatious lawsuits against a High Court judge and other lawyers has again sued other members of the judiciary.

Eugenie Houston BL initiated a case last week naming seven High Court and Court of Appeal judges, several lawyers, and a county registrar as defendants.

The judges include Mr Justice Liam Kennedy, who is due to hear applications in a long-running dispute between the barrister and Wendy Doyle, a solicitor who has secured orders for the possession and sale of Ms Houston’s home.

These include an application for an injunction restraining Ms Houston from the property in Naas, Co Kildare, which the barrister reoccupied after bailiffs took possession of it last year.

Ms Doyle is also seeking an Isaac Wunder order against Ms Houston, which is an order restricting a vexatious litigant from instituting further proceedings without first getting court permission.

Ms Houston is seeking an injunction restraining the sale of the property.

When the various matters were mentioned before Mr Justice Kennedy yesterday, Ms Houston told the judge she was suing him for defamation and misfeasance and asked him to recuse himself.

Ms Houston claimed the judge “called me a criminal, without cause” at a previous hearing.

Tom Murphy BL, counsel for Ms Doyle, urged the judge not to recuse himself and said the application was “an abuse of process”.

“Anybody who had knowledge of the salient facts would understand that Ms Houston has issued proceedings as of last week as a contrivance to prevent you from presiding over these proceedings,” Mr Murphy said.

He said an objective person would not have any concerns about the judge’s integrity or capacity to oversee the proceedings in a proper and fair manner.

Mr Justice Kennedy said he would reflect on the recusal application overnight and rule on it today.

He said that, in making the application, Ms Houston had “made a huge number of allegations” against solicitors, Ms Doyle, and a postal worker.

The judge said that while doing so, Ms Houston was looking at a journalist who was present in the courtroom rather than up at the bench and that he was therefore concerned the claims were made “with the intention of generating media publicity”.

He said Ms Houston had ample opportunity to put the allegations on affidavit but had not done so. “She has no judicial findings to support her in respect of those allegations,” he said.

Last November, another judge, Mr Justice Michael Quinn, recused himself from determining an application for Ms Houston’s imprisonment for alleged contempt of court after learning he was a co-defendant, along with 22 other judges, in a lawsuit filed by her in 2023.

The dispute between Ms Houston and Ms Doyle stretches back to 2014 when the barrister sued the solicitor for defamation. The case was settled and an order was made on consent that Ms Houston would pay Ms Doyle’s costs, but these were not paid.

Ms Houston filed further sets of unsuccessful proceedings, resulting in further costs orders against her and judgment mortgages on her home.

One of these cases was dismissed as frivolous and vexatious by Mr Justice Kennedy last year.

The same judge also dismissed as frivolous and vexatious a defamation case filed by Ms Houston against another High Court judge, Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds.

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