Couple in court over disputed firm, assets

A bitter dispute between a man and a woman, whom he claims he never legally married but with whom he lived for 15 years and by whom he has two children, has resulted in High Court proceedings aimed at establishing the beneficial ownership of substantial assets, including the estranged couple's family home, a company which runs a caravan park at Lahinch in Co Clare, and joint bank accounts.

The proceedings have been taken by Mr Richard Grant, with an address at Shamrock Court, Lahinch, against Ms Maire Hanrahan, otherwise Maire Grant, of Seapark, Lahinch.

The court heard Mr Grant was married before meeting Ms Hanrahan but had separated from his wife, with whom he had three children, in 1979-1980.

Mr Frank Callanan SC, for Mr Grant, said his client met Ms Hanrahan, then a schoolteacher, in 1980 when she was aged 22 and he 38. They began a relationship and cohabited from 1983.

A settlement was agreed between Mr Grant and his wife in 1983. Mr Callanan said Ms Hanrahan had wished for Mr Grant and his wife to divorce, and Mr Grant had agreed.

A significant aspect of this case was that the English divorce obtained by Mr Grant was clearly invalid and of no effect in Irish law because neither Mr Grant nor his wife was domiciled in the UK. Ms Hanrahan was asserting this was a valid divorce.

Following the divorce, Mr Grant and Ms Hanrahan underwent "a form of marriage" in 1988 at a register office in England. They subsequently had two children, now aged 12 and 11. There was an issue relating to the validity of this marriage, Mr Callanan said.

The couple had lived together amicably until about 1997 but the relationship deteriorated from then and significantly from 1999. Mr Grant was no longer in the family home at Lahinch, Co Clare, and the differences between the couple were irreconcilable.

In the proceedings, Mr Grant is seeking orders asserting he is the beneficial owner of a company, Cove Caravans Ltd, which he claims is a family business set up by his late father and which he claims to have directed and managed since the mid-1980s.

He claims that in 1984 he placed 99 shares of the company into Ms Hanrahan's name, with her concurrence, and one share into his own name.

He accepts that Ms Hanrahan played some role in the running of the company but claims she was at all times aware he remained the beneficial owner of the company, and the registration of the 99 shares in her name was for the sake of convenience only.

He claims Ms Hanrahan knew at all material times that she held the shares registered in her name in trust for him. In 1984 the company's assets consisted of a caravan park of 81 mobile-home sites and services at The Park, Lahinch.

Mr Grant claims their relationship deteriorated in the late 1990s and that Ms Hanrahan obtained the books and records of the company, prevented him gaining access to them and effectively assumed the control of the company.

Ms Hanrahan claims she and Mr Grant were lawfully married and pleads she is the beneficial owner of the 99 shares in Cove Caravans.

She claims Mr Grant placed the shares in her name to put his assets beyond the reach of his first wife and children. She also claims Mr Grant has failed to properly account to the court regarding the income of the company.

The case continues today.