The Commercial Court has been asked to resolve a dispute over the ownership of Dublin property assets involving the sale of shares in the Bad Ass Café in Temple Bar, the purchase of Delaney’s pub in Smithfield and ownership of a property in Gardiner Street/Mabbot Lane.
Businesswoman Marina Valera claims her former business partner Paul Tiernan is asserting “some form of beneficial interest” over the assets in what she says represents an opportunistic attempt to leverage her and her companies into making a payment to him.
Ms Valera, who also says she was romantically involved with Mr Tiernan between 2008 and 2011, has brought proceedings she says are to clarify who owns the properties and assets. She says Mr Tiernan enjoys no right, title or interest over the assets.
Her case was admitted to the Commercial Court on Monday by Mr Justice Denis McDonald on consent between the parties. The court heard Mr Tiernan strongly disputes her claims.
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The judge also welcomed that the parties will try to settle the matter by mediation. He adjourned the matter until next month.
The case is brought by Ms Valera, of Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin; Laupteen Ltd; Femida Ltd; and Blackhill Resources Ltd against Mr Tiernan, of Churchfields, K Club, Straffan, Co Kildare.
Ms Valera said, in an affidavit, that in pre-action correspondence, Mr Tiernan appeared to be claiming a beneficial interest in the Gardiner Street property, which was run as a B&B/hostel. She said it was previously owned by him through the Laupteen company until shares in that firm were transferred to her and a lease was created over the property.
She said that from October 2010, Mr Tiernan enjoyed no economic interest in that B&B business, which she said she “worked tirelessly” to develop.
She transferred her shareholding in Laupteen to Femida, which she owned outright, and then transferred that shareholding to Blackhill, of which she became 97.5 per cent shareholder.
It is proposed that a sale by Blackhill of the shares in Femida will take place within six to eight weeks and will raise more than €6.2 million. Ms Valera said Mr Tiernan’s assertion of a beneficial interest has the potential to derail that share sale.
Ms Valera said she also had a 50 per cent interest in Benqueues Ltd, which owned and operated the Bad Ass Café in Temple Bar. She and her fellow shareholder recently sold their shares in Benqueues for €1.9 million.
She said it was difficult to understand how Mr Tiernan can plausibly assert a right or entitlement to a share of those proceeds.
She said it was also “difficult to credit” his claim of a beneficial interest in another firm, NCR Investments, whose principal asset is a right under contract to purchase Delaney’s of Smithfield. The vendor has been paid a €73,500 deposit on the €766,000 sale price but has refused to complete, and NCR has brought specific performance proceedings over this, she said.
In letters from Mr Tiernan’s lawyers, he has asserted that in 2009/10, they (Valera and Tiernan) reached an agreement to share equally profits from the business of Laupteen. He also claimed that all Ms Valera’s shares in the Bad Ass Café were held on trust for him.
She “utterly rejects” his claim that the two of them are party to some “loose profit share agreement” or that she holds any of her shares on trust for him.
