Dunne and estate agents settle action over €1.5m fee

A HIGH Court action by a firm of estate agents against developer Seán Dunne over alleged unpaid fees of €1.5 million has been settled.

Under the settlement, Mr Dunne has withdrawn claims that estate agents CBRE advised him to buy Irish Life’s Hume House for €130 million when, he claimed, the nearest competing bid was €102 million and its true value was €65-€95 million.

The case opened on Tuesday after Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan refused to adjourn it on grounds Mr Dunne was unwell. Mr Dunne’s GP told the court he had symptoms of a flu-like viral infection but had not been diagnosed with swine flu. Tests were to be carried out and the results were to be available yesterday, the court was told.

The case was due to resume yesterday when Donal O’Donnell SC, for Mr Dunne, told the judge the parties had been able to resolve their differences.

Mr O’Donnell handed in terms of settlement in which Mr Dunne withdrew all claims against CBRE.

Mr O’Donnell said it had also been agreed that €1 million lodged by Mr Dunne in court in advance of the action would be paid out to CBRE in satisfaction of CBRE’s claim. There were no other terms and the proceedings could be struck out, counsel said.

Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan said she was delighted the parties had managed to resolve their differences and she struck out the case.

Mr Dunne’s wife Gayle Killilea, who had been in court for the previous three days of the case, was not in court yesterday when the settlement was read out.

Mr Dunne was to have been a central witness in the action in which CBRE claimed it was owed €1.5 million in fees from the sale in February 2006 of premises known as Riverside IV at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin, and the part-exchange of that with Hume House in Ballsbridge.

The court heard the sale of Hume House was the highest amount paid per acre of land in Dublin – €145 million per acre – dwarfing the €54-€55 million per acre paid by Mr Dunne in 2001 for the Jurys/Berkeley Court hotel sites.

CBRE said it expressly advised Mr Dunne it could not justify significantly more than €65 million for the property, and denied his claims that its directors, Willie Dowling and Seán O’Brien, persuaded him to bid €130 million.

CBRE released a statement after the case saying that all claims had been settled and that all outstanding fees due to the firm would be paid. Managing director Guy Hollis said CBRE was delighted with the outcome.

However, Mr Dunne’s company Mountbrook Homes issued a statement saying that the estate agent’s claimed fees of €1,512,500 have not been paid.

It said that instead, €1 million which Mr Dunne paid into court was released to CBRE to cover all fees claimed and to cover its High Court costs in relation to the action, as a full and final settlement. “Seán Dunne and the Mountbrook Group have terminated all dealings with and will not be engaging CBRE Ireland or worldwide in relation to any further dealings,” it added.