A High Court judge will give her decision tomorrow on an application by two Payzone executives restraining the company from treating them as being dismissed.

Ms Justice Maureen Clark said yesterday she would give her decision tomorrow and her considered judgment later on the application by chief executive John Nagle and chief financial officer John Williamson who claim the company chairman Bob Thian had acted without authority and breached its own rules in announcing their dismissal.

Yesterday, on the third day of the hearing, the court heard that a letter from Mr Nagle to the company chairman earlier this month "could not have been more insulting or offensive to the chairman of any company".

That letter, of January 14th, was written after Mr Nagle secured legal advice and, in it, Mr Nagle had, "quite deliberately" set the scene for "an irreversible breakdown of trust and confidence", John Gordon SC, for Payzone said.

However, Mr Nagle was "simply wrong" to suggest that Mr Thian was seeking to transfer blame on to Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson for the underperformance of Cardpoint (the UK ATM company which last year merged with Alphyra, a company founded by Mr Nagle, to form Payzone).

The undisputed fact was that a majority of the board and shareholders - including private equity firm Balderton, which holds 40 per cent of the company and is the largest single shareholder - supported the termination of the contracts of Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson, counsel for Payzone said.

Balderton, he said, was "the prime mover" in seeking change and had sworn an affidavit stating it supported what had happened and confirming Mr Thian's version of events.

Because of the seriousness of the situation in which Payzone now finds itself, Balderton was also in the process of calling an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for the purpose of removing Mr Nagle and Mr Williamson as soon as possible.

Paul Gardiner SC, for Mr Nagle, disputed claims by Mr Gordon that this case is affecting the business of the company whose shares have been suspended on the stock exchange.