THE HIGH Court has granted judgment for €1.7 million to Tom Roche, the chairman of National Toll Roads, against former business partner and former brother-in-law Michael Wymes, in proceedings arising from the collapse of Bula Mines 25 years ago.
Bula Mines, in which the State was a shareholder, was established by Mr Roche’s father, Tom Roche snr, Mr Wymes and Richard Wood in 1971 to buy a zinc and lead mine near Navan, Co Meath, but it collapsed with substantial debts some years later. Mr Roche jnr also invested in Bula. In his judgment yesterday on proceedings by Mr Roche against Mr Wymes, Mr Justice John MacMenamin said no recital of the facts in the litigation spanning more than 25 years and “so redolent in length and complexity of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce in Dickens’s Bleak House”, could do justice to the personal cost, stress and anxiety that the events had had upon all those involved.
Both sides in this latest chapter of the “unfortunate saga” had been urged to resolve their differences but to no avail, he noted. It was impossible to avoid the sense that while the money involved was substantial, it was “now almost symbolic”. He also referred to both sides’ “entrenched stance”, based on “traumatic past events”.
He said Mr Roche had since enjoyed success in business, while Mr Wymes “has remained entangled in a morass of litigation”.
In the action, Mr Roche sought a declaration that Mr Wymes was obliged to repay him such amount as the court decided represented a “rateable contribution” allegedly due by Mr Wymes on foot of payments by Mr Roche of €9 million to National Irish Bank Ltd (formerly Northern Bank Finance Corporation) and €1.4 million to Ulster Bank Ltd (formerly Ulster Investment Bank Ltd).
Those payments, made in 2004, related to guarantees given by Mr Roche and Mr Wymes to both banks. The banks had obtained judgment on foot of the guarantees against Mr Roche, Mr Wymes, the estate of Thomas Roche snr and Mr Wood, all co-guarantors of the indebtedness of Bula Ltd to various banks.
Mr Roche claimed that, because the payments made by him eliminated or reduced Mr Wymes’s financial obligations and as he and his father’s estate overpaid to discharge the debts, he was entitled to contribution from Mr Wymes.
The judge noted that, during litigation after Bula’s collapse, Mr Wymes and Mr Wood remained convinced of success, while the Roches held a different view. The outcome showed Mr Wymes’s optimism was ill-judged, he said. He noted the Roches at one point negotiated an outcome that would have let Mr Wymes and Mr Wood emerge virtually unscathed, but both refused. From the mid-1990s onwards, Mr Roche’s financial position improved through other investments, including National Toll Roads, the judge said.
In 1997, Ulster Bank initiated bankruptcy proceedings against the four guarantors while in November 2003, NIB had demanded repayment of €11.9 million and warned if that was not paid, NIB would seek possession of the Roche family lands at Chesterfield and Woodford, Blackrock, Co Dublin. In 2004, Mr Roche settled the Ulster Bank claims for €1.4 million and settled the NIB claim for €9 million. He claimed those settlements related to his own obligations and those of his late father’s estate, to the banks but not to the obligations of Mr Wymes.
Mr Wymes then applied for cancellation of a judgment mortgage entered by NIB against his lands at Bective, Co Meath, and referred to the €9 million settlement. Mr Roche learned of this in 2005 and his solicitors sought a contribution from Mr Wymes, who disputed that monies were due.
The judge ruled Mr Wymes repay Mr Roche €1.831 million in relation to the NIB settlement, less €124,381 related to an overpayment by Mr Wymes in relation to the Ulster Bank debt.