Dunne row goes to mediation in US

A legal row between property developer Seán Dunne and his wife Gayle Killilea and a New York-based Irish builder over a construction firm has gone to mediation.

Seán Doyle and his wife Denise Campion sued Mr Dunne and Ms Killilea in New York state's supreme court in October, claiming Mr Dunne tried to take control of their firm, JDDC Construction.

Mr Doyle and his wife want a shareholder agreement signed with Ms Killilea in June 2012 rescinded on the basis that they claim Mr Dunne and Ms Killilea had failed to meet their side of an agreement and that they made misrepresentations that Mr Dunne had resolved his debt problems in Ireland.

They allege that the couple said they would invest $978,288 but Ms Killilea had only provided $500,000.

She has described the claims made by Mr Doyle and Ms Campion as “baseless”. Their shareholder agreement involved her taking 50 per cent of the company for $500,000, including a $250,000 loaned to JDDC for a building project at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, she claimed.

She has alleged that Mr Doyle and Ms Campion have operated JDCC as “their personal piggy bank” using her funds to support their lifestyle and possibly to pay non-business bills.

Mr Doyle claimed that he met Mr Dunne on or about Sunday, May 27th, 2012, at Mr Dunne's home and that Mr Dunne told him he owned residential lots in Westchester, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut. He was looking to develop them into luxury homes and sell them for profit.

Personal funds
Mr Dunne told him he was looking for a company to carry out the construction work and that he had $6 million in personal funds available for immediate investment.

At another meeting on June 3rd, at Mr Dunne’s house in Greenwich, Mr Doyle said Mr Dunne wanted to buy 50 per cent of JDDC.

He told Mr Dunne this would cost him $1 million.

"Dunne said that the money was not a problem and that he would be able to wire it within a week from an account he had in Switzerland, " Mr Doyle said in an affidavit. "However, Dunne indicated that he wanted his wife to be named as a shareholder, not him, because he was emerging from financial difficulties and still had bad credit."

Mr Doyle claimed the couple made false representations that Mr Dunne had no debt issues and they did not disclose a €185 million judgment in favour ofNama. Ms Killilea denies the investment in JDDC was Mr Dunne’s, saying in an affidavit that “the investment made is mine and mine alone”.4

Mr Doyle claimed Mr Dunne had since September 2012 attempted to become involved in JDDC’s day-to-day affairs, purporting to be Ms Killilea’s “agent and personal representative”, and that he showed up at the company’s site office claiming to be “in charge” and tried to fire its project manager.

Ms Killilea has claimed that she was entitled to appoint her husband as her project representative under the shareholder agreement.