The ongoing Commercial Court case concerning the Barne Estate in Co Tipperary has generated tens of thousands of documents but hinges on one key question: was the sale of the lands agreed last year during a meeting between billionaire blockstock owner John Magnier and Richard Thomson-Moore?
Mr Magnier’s side argues that Mr Thomson-Moore agreed to sell him the 751-acre estate near Clonmel, which had been in the latter’s family since the 17th century, when they met at his Coolmore home on August 22nd last year. The agreed price is said to have been €15 million.
However, Mr Thomson-Moore alleges no enforceable sale took place and that his family subsequently struck a deal to sell the estate to the New York-based Irish construction magnate Maurice Regan for €22.5 million.
The case has now morphed into one involving dozens of interested parties and tens of thousands of documents and pieces of electronic correspondence. Mr Magnier, his son JP Magnier, son-in-law David Wachman and 13 others, including Coolmore employees and legal advisers, have handed up their phones to allow for information related to the case to be forensically extracted.
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Correspondence, mostly emails, from Coolmore Stud were also handed up, meaning the number of pieces of information involved totalled 291,527 at one stage. This has been reduced, after duplicates were excluded, to 155,969 different pieces, according to an affidavit sworn by John Magnier.
However, in court documents seen by The Irish Times, Mr Thomson-Moore’s legal team claims that potentially vital correspondence has been omitted. This includes information potentially held by John Magnier’s wife Susan, who was present at the contentious meeting, and their daughter Katherine Wachman, who is named as a plaintiff in the case.
The Thomson-Moore’s side also alleges there was a “complete deficiency” in terms of how the servers at Coolmore House and Coolmore Stud were searched.
John Magnier has responded by stating that all the relevant email correspondence concerning the sale of the estate has been included along with any documents related to Ms Magnier and Ms Wachman’s involvement in the case. Their phone records have not been offered as part of discovery, though Mr Thomson-Moore has requested it.
The estate owner has also queried why John Magnier is claiming legal privilege over his dealings with Murray Consultants, the public relations firm, and its managing director Pat Walsh, who are acting as media advisers in the case. The Magnier side has argued that correspondence relating to the case was shared with Murray Consultants on a “strictly confidential basis”.
On the other side, Mr Thomson-Moore and Mr Regan, the other would-be purchaser, have been asked to hand up phone records concerning the case, amounting to more than 6,000 pieces of correspondence.
Arthur Cox solicitors, acting on behalf of John Magnier, have complained that there has been a “serious lack of compliance with the discovery process to date” on the part of the defendants – a claim the defendants deny.
Mr Magnier’s side has produced 656 documents under discovery and claimed privilege over a further 2,144 while Mr Thomson-Moore has produced 4,573 documents and claimed privilege over 3,364.
Mr Justice Denis McDonald was told in court last week that the two sides intend to meet on October 1st to narrow the discovery issues. The judge, referring to the voluminous correspondence in the case, responded by stating that such a move would be “very helpful”.
“Hopefully that will bear fruit despite all the toing and froing in this particular case if I could put it in those neutral terms,” he said.
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