The Crosbie newspaper chain has lost a High Court action to force an outside printing house to include valuable advertising inserts and supplements in its national and regional publications.
Webprint Concepts Ltd (WCL), of Mahon Retail Park, Cork, had threatened to withdraw the service on the grounds that Thomas Crosbie Printers Ltd (TCP) had failed to pay for the extra work involved, as well as for a straight-edge trimming service of supplements.
WCL has sued TCP for €11.2 million, which it claims it is owed under a printing agreement to print the Irish Examiner, the Evening Echo, the Sunday BusinessPost and 14 regional newspapers. This claim is likely to be referred next week to the Commercial Court of the High Court.
Mr Justice John Hedigan had heard that WCL had threatened to withdraw the service of inserting the advertising and news and sports supplements in all of the Crosbie publications starting from this week because of alleged major underpayments that TCP disputes.
TCP went to the High Court last Friday and obtained an interim injunction restraining WCL from carrying out its threat not to trim supplements or include them in publications.
The temporary order lasted until yesterday, when Mr Justice Hedigan refused to confirm the injunction which would have forced WCL to continue the inserts and trimming service until the trial of the €11.2 million claim in the Commercial Court.
The judge refused the injunction, stating that Thomas Crosbie Printers Ltd were better able to withstand the financial consequences of making interim payments between now and the trial of the main action. He was referring to an interim claim made on January 3rd last by WCL for €1,266,093.
The judge said TCP had conceded it owed some money to WCL and had paid a sum in the region of €800,000 on January 4th.
"Without prejudice" interim payments by TCP to WCL between now and the date of the trial are likely to ensure the continuance of trimming services and the inclusion of inserts in all Crosbie publications.