Pension fund seeks court order

A PENSION fund and two company directors with liabilities of more than €50 million to ACCBank are seeking court orders requiring a partnership to honour alleged obligations to buy development lands in Co Tipperary for more than €12.3 million.

The plaintiffs say they urgently need the defendants to honour their alleged obligations arising under option agreements of 2005 and 2006 so that the €12.3 million can be used to discharge loan facilities with ACC related to the lands at issue.

Unless the funds are received, there is a substantial risk ACC could call in the loans relating to the Tipperary properties and this could have “a cascading effect” in relation to other properties owned by the plaintiffs which are also subject of loans with ACC, it is claimed.

On grounds of delay, Mr Justice Peter Kelly refused to admit to the Commercial Court list the action by Friends First Managed Pension Funds Ltd, Friends First House, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin; Noel Connellan, Shanaway Road, Ennis, Co Clare, and Seán Lyne, Riverside, Ennis, against Niall Walsh, Paul Bowes and Patrick Anglim, trading as the ABW Partnership, and with addresses respectively at Owens and Bigs Lot, Cashel, Co Tipperary; Mocklershill, Cashel; and Rosegreen, Cashel.

The judge said the court had to preserve its resources for cases which were truly urgent.

His decision means the case will not be fast-tracked but will proceed through the ordinary High Court list.

It is claimed all three defendants were members of a partnership trading as the ABW partnership and, under agreements of November 2005 and June 2006, entered into contracts to purchase development lands at Old Road, Cashel, and at Cooper’s Lot, Cashel.

It is claimed the plaintiffs and defendants later entered into other agreements concerning the lands. In their action, the plaintiffs want orders for specific performance of contracts of December 2008 and February 2009 providing, it is alleged, for the sale by the plaintiffs to the defendants of the lands. The defendants have denied the claims.