Case involving solicitor and developer to proceed to hearing

SOLICITOR IVOR Fitzpatrick and property developer Paddy McKillen have failed to reach a settlement of their Commercial Court dispute about the conduct of the affairs of a large property development holding company.

The case will now proceed to hearing at a date to be fixed by Mr Justice John MacMenamin today.

The case relates to the conduct of the affairs of Canton Caseys Ltd (CCL), with offices at St Stephen's Green, Dublin, and was due to open last week and run for four weeks.

On October 8th last, after day-long talks between the sides resulted in no agreement, the judge agreed to their application to give them another week to see if a settlement could be arrived at.

Yesterday he was told by Michael Cush SC, for Mr Fitzpatrick, that no settlement had been reached, and the sides were looking for the earliest possible date for hearing.

The judge said he was "very disturbed" no settlement had been reached as there was an indication to him last week of considerable goodwill between the sides.

Mr Cush said a huge amount of work had been done in the intervening period and, while the case had not settled, matters had advanced considerably and it would be wrong to infer that goodwill had evaporated.

John Gleeson SC, for Mr McKillen, agreed the sides had made progress, and said his client now wanted the case heard as soon as possible.

The judge said he would list the case today for the purpose of fixing a hearing date within days, and he expected the case to finish within the four-week span allotted to it from October 7th last.

Canton Caseys was incorporated in 1986 and acts principally as a holding company for property development. Through Powerscreen Indo-China Ltd and Powerscreen Equipment (Vietnam) Ltd, CCL also has, or had, interests in distribution agencies and in quarries in southeast Asia.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times