A small beef processing company which claims it was “hung out” as the “fall guy” for the Irish horsemeat scandal has been directed to provide security for the legal costs of its defamation case.
The company claims a statement issued by a rival company of beef baron Larry Goodman "hung out" it out for the Irish horsemeat scandal.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, ruled today McAdam Food Products Ltd (MAF) had failed to show any special circumstances entitling it not to provide security for costs of the action brought by it and Martin McAdam against ABP Food Group (ABP).
The judge found MAF was unable to sustain a credible argument on the three grounds advanced by it for an order refusing security.
It had not advanced credible arguments it was seeking to vindicate the public interest in the proceedings or that its insolvency was caused by ABP, he said.
This case was about one company trying to vignetted its own commercial reputation for its own discrete reasons, he said.
Documents produced to the court showed that, prior to the release of the ABP statement on February 5th, 2013, that statements were made by other parties associating MAF with the horsemeat scandal which were reported in the media, he also said.
There was also no credible basis for refusing security on the basis of Mr McAdam being also a plaintiff in the case who is resident in Ireland, he ruled.
The amount of security will be decided later and the proceedings have been adjourned for two weeks.
ABP, which denies defamation, wants €640,000 security to meet its costs of defending the proceedings and has said it did not believe MAF would be able to meet costs awarded against it should it lose its case.
In opposing the security application, MAF claimed its finances “fell off a cliff” as a result of a statement issued by ABP on February 5th 2013.
Its counsel Jim O’Callaghan argued it was “grossly unfair” his clients were “hung out” by the Goodman group as the “fall guy” for the Irish horsemeat scandal.
In their case, the McAdam side claim the ABP statement was widely published in the media and meant they sold beef products to ABP that contained horsemeat.
As a direct consequence of that statement, they claim they suffered serious injury to their reputations and loss and damage.
The disclosure last year in Ireland of adulteration of beef products with equine DNA ultimately led to discovery of a pan-European problem involving fraudulent mislabelling of certain beef products, they claim.
An investigation by the Department of Agriculture concluded there was no evidence MAF knowingly traded processed meat product subsequently found to have tested positive for equine DNA, they claim.
ABP denies defamation and claims its press release referred to a company called McAdams Food Services and not either plaintiff.
It also pleads “truth” and the plaintiffs did sell product to Silvercrest, a Co Monaghan-based meat processing company within the ABP group, that contained horsemeat.
In submissions, ABP said Silvercrest sourced most products from within the ABP group itself but also bought beef from other European producers, mostly Irish and British.
The UK Food Standards Authority announced in February 2013 meat tested by it in a cold store at Freeza Meats, Northern Ireland, which tested positive for horsemeat, was potentially linked to Silvercrest, ABP said.
The consignment which tested positive had been supplied by MAF and the press statement was a response to publicity surrounding the UK FSA announcement, it said.
