The Coman family has this evening settled its bitter dispute over the future ownership and control of their multi-million pub and drinks business in Dublin. The settlement was made at the High Court and is estimated to be for about €7 million but no details were disclosed to the court.
No members of the family were in court for the brief hearing about 6 p.m.
Afterwards, lawyers shook hands outside and were clearly delighted but none would comment. It is understood members of the family were "in the vicinity" of the courts earlier yesterday.
The settlement was announced to the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan, who had spent five days over the last two weeks hearing evidence in the dispute between Mr Patrick (80) and Mrs Mary Coman (70) and five of their six sons.
Evidence had concluded yesterday and the judge indicated then that he would deliver his judgment in the next law term, which starts in early October. During the hearing, it emerged that a figure of €7.05 million as a payment to the parents had been discussed in settlement negotations early last year which were not concluded. While the settlement terms were not given in court yesterday, the final figure is understood to be in the region of €7 million.
Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for the five sons, told the judge that the parties had reached a settlement in which all their differences had been resoved, as had all other proceedings pending before the court. A draft order was submitted to the judge who then made an order which, journalists were told later, was subject to a confidentiality clause.
The judge said he was very pleased the sides had managed to resolve their differences, which, he said, were not enormous but were very difficult to resolve. During the hearing, Mr Justice Finnegan was asked to resolve the meaning and effect of an alleged agreement of February 5th, 2003 between Patrick and Mary Coman and their sons, Geoffrey, John, Patrick junior, Thomas and Denis.