Protracted, bitter and costly legal proceedings relating to the public relations firm Murray Consultants have been settled at the High Court.

The proceedings were taken by Mr Terence Horgan, who claimed to be a founding partner in the firm, against Mr Joseph Murray and Mr James Milton, the remaining partners. Mr Horgan, of Deerpark Road, Castleknock, Dublin, had taken an action under the Companies Act and a separate action alleging unfair dismissal.

Both actions were due to be heard by the High Court on February 1st and were expected to last at least eight days. Preliminary matters related to the actions have been before the courts on many occasions for some years now and, just last month, the court granted an application by Mr Murray and Mr Milton for an order striking out a third set of proceedings taken by Mr Horgan.

Yesterday, Mr Bryan Murray, for Mr Murray and Mr Milton, applied for the remaining actions to be taken out of the list. Counsel said the matter had been settled and could be adjourned for mention on March 9th. Mr Justice McCracken made that order.

In previous hearings, the High Court was told Mr Horgan claimed he was approached by Mr Murray in 1974 with a view to establishing a public relations business. He claimed the two men agreed to establish a partnership, that Mr Horgan should be a partner and to run the partnership through a company, MCL. All went well for some 20 years, the business thrived and expanded, moved to a new premises and changed its name.

At the end of 1994, Mr Horgan claimed Mr Murray threatened to pull out of his business relationship unless he was given complete control. Mr Horgan said he offered to sell his shares in the company to the other two but negotiations on price were unsuccessful. There were acrimonious meetings, failed negotiations and Mr Horgan claimed the other two had unilaterally purported to terminate their partnership with him and have been running the company to the exclusion of him.

He also claimed Mr Murray and Mr Milton have conspired to reduce the recorded profits and to dissipate the assets of the company and to induce the company to breach its contract of employment with him by failing to pay his salary and purporting to terminate his employment. The claims were denied by both defendants.

In striking out the third set of proceedings taken by Mr Horgan last month, Mr Justice O'Sullivan said he could find no basis where a court could find there was a partnership relationship between the three parties to the action which was separate from their relationship as common shareholding members of MCL.

In his view, there was no case for a partnership. The parties had conceived and promoted a public relations business to be conducted through the medium of MCL. There was no reasonable cause of action regarding Mr Horgan's claim for damages for defamation, the judge found. He added Mr Horgan's claim for an injunction restraining the defendants from dissipating the assets of the business could be dealt with in the other proceedings. It was those latter proceedings which were resolved yesterday.