THE COMMERCIAL Court has ruled developer Seán Dunne is not entitled to orders requiring a firm of estate agents to discover certain “extensive” materials in a legal action arising from his €130 million purchase of Irish Life’s Hume House property in 2006.
Mr Dunne had sought several categories of documents from CB Richard Ellis for his defence and counterclaim to proceedings by the company over alleged unpaid fees of €1.5 million, exclusive of VAT. That action will be heard in July.
CBRE, while agreeing to discover a number of categories and to limited discovery of others, said certain materials sought were unnecessary and involved a “fishing expedition” by Mr Dunne to support “unsubstantiated claims”.
In his counterclaim, Mr Dunne has claimed damages of €35 million from CBRE. He claims, relying on CBRE advice, he bought the property for €130 million when the nearest competing bid was €102 million and the true value of the premises was between €65 million and €95 million. CBRE denies those claims and alleges it expressly advised Mr Dunne it could not justify significantly more than €65 million for the property.
Yesterday Mr Justice Peter Kelly found the discovery which CBRE had agreed to make was adequate and Mr Dunne was not entitled to the further discovery sought by him.
CBRE had agreed to discover a range of documents in several categories, including its file on the Hume House transaction and documents relating to its own dealings concerning Hume House with Irish Life Assurance plc, Irish Life Investment Managers or related Irish Life companies.
The judge upheld CBRE’s arguments that Mr Dunne’s request for other documents concerning any dealings with other companies in the CB Richard Ellis Group Inc and the Irish Life companies in relation to the Hume House purchase was oppressive and unnecessary to ensure a fair trial.
CBRE has stated no other company in the international CBRE group, which consisted of some 100 companies, was involved in relation to the Hume House transaction, he noted.
The judge noted CBRE had said there was no basis for Mr Dunne’s claim it had received a fee from Irish Life over the Hume House deal. On that clear understanding, it nonetheless had agreed to discover all documents evidencing payments received from Irish Life for the transaction but pointed out there were no such documents, the judge noted. That proposed discovery was adequate.
He also refused to direct discovery of all documents relating to dealings concerning valuations between CBRE and Mr Dunne’s Mountbrook Homes group over five years to October 2008. Mr Dunne sought those documents to support his claim he relied on CBRE advice but the judge said this was an “extraordinarily wide” category and unnecessary to properly determine the issues.
CBRE had indicated it would be delivering a precis of the evidence it intends to rely on at trial and would append to that all documents it intended to rely on, he also noted. CBRE, with registered offices at Connaught House, Burlington Road, Dublin, claims €1.5 million is due to it in fees relating to a commercial property transaction of February 2006 involving the sale of premises known as Riverside IV at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin, and the part exchange of that with Hume House at Pembroke Road.
CBRE denies claims by Mr Dunne it received a fee from Irish Life over the sale of Hume House or breached its professional duty to Mr Dunne.