Courts

Judge makes discovery directions in Magnier dispute with Barne Estate owners

Commercial Court directs Tipperary estate owners to disclose communications in period between Magnier suing them and closing of a deal to sell the property

The 751-acre Barne estate in Co Tipperary includes a mansion house modelled on an 18th-century French chateau

Ellen O'Riordan
Mon Apr 8 2024 - 18:41

The Commercial Court has agreed with billionaire horse breeder John Magnier that certain Barne Estate records created after he issued his case are relevant to his claim that a deal for his purchase of the property was breached.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald directed the owners of the Co Tipperary stately home and farmland to disclose various communications that may have occurred in the period between Mr Magnier suing them and the closing of a deal to sell the property to New York-based construction magnate Maurice Regan.

The Barne Estate defendants to Mr Magnier’s action had already agreed to provide various records created before October 16th, 2023, when he lodged his claim.

Mr Magnier’s legal team on Monday successfully argued they should receive any similar communications that occurred between then and December 1st, 2023, when a €22.5 million sale of the Clonmel estate concluded.

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Mr Justice McDonald said the sale closure date was a “logical” point up to which the documents should be shared.

After making directions, Mr Justice McDonald heard the exchange of these records would take several weeks. He adjourned the case to June when he intends to make further directions and expects the parties will seek a trial date for the case to be heard in the fourth quarter of this year.

Mr Magnier has brought his case alongside two of his adult children – John Paul Magnier and Kate Wachman – in a bid to enforce an alleged deal for the sale of the 751-acre residential tillage farm to Mr Magnier for €15 million.

They say a deal was struck last August 22nd at Mr Magnier’s Coolmore Stud.

Mr Magnier states he paid a €250,000 deposit for the land, lodged the full amount with his solicitors and paid for a tillage licence to plough the land on the basis that he had a “binding agreement” to purchase it.

[ Brown envelopes and the Barne Estate: John Magnier’s battle to buy one of Co Tipperary’s most prized farms ]

The defendants – Barne Estate Ltd, Richard Thomson Moore (one of its owners) and two Jersey-based shareholding companies – admit handshakes occurred at the meeting but deny there is any enforceable deal. They argue no one at the meeting had the authority to make a binding agreement for sale of the estate, which has a complex ownership structure.

The defendants want damages as part of their counterclaim alleging a High Court move by the Magniers prevented the sale of their lands and access to about €22 million.

Mr Thomson-Moore’s family have owned the estate outside Clonmel since the middle of the 17th century.

Ellen O'Riordan

Ellen O'Riordan

Ellen O'Riordan is an Irish Times reporter

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