Fraser Brown, a former live-in partner and business partner of well-known Irish ballet dancer Monica Loughman, on Thursday asked a judge to declare a statement allegedly published about him on Facebook by her was defamatory.
Mr Brown, of Willow Park Avenue, Glasnevin, Dublin, asked Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court to direct that Ms Loughman publicly correct the statement and to make an order prohibiting her from further publication of the statement.
High Court dispute
Mr Brown told the court his applications related to a High Court dispute over a company he and Ms Loughman “co-owned”.
Barrister Benedict O’Floinn, counsel for Ms Loughman, of The Courtyard, Castleside Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin, said he did not accept Mr Brown’s characterisation of the issues between the parties.
He told the judge the parties were involved in proceedings before the High Court and, while he did not accept Mr Brown had a valid complaint, any issue should properly be made in the context of the High Court proceedings.
Mr O’Floinn said Mr Brown had taken the wrong proceedings in the wrong court.
Adjourned to February
The judge adjourned the applications until February next and directed that sworn affidavits be exchanged between the parties and entered in the court file before then.
A High Court injunction, including some conditions by consent, remains in place against Ms Loughman’s “former business partner” Mr Brown until a dispute between them is determined by the court.
Ms Loughman earlier this year brought High Court proceedings against Mr Brown in respect of the Monica Loughman Ballet Company Ltd, which was set up in 2011.
Mr Brown was restrained from terminating her employment with the company or from having the company liquidated.
The company operates a ballet school with more than 50 dancers and carries out a wide range of activities in relation to ballet.
Ms Loughman, in her High Court proceedings, alleges that, following the end of their personal relationship, Mr Brown, who had acted as the company’s finance manager, agreed he would no longer be part of the business.
Fear for reputation alleged
She alleges he had refused to disengage from the company or from her life generally and she feared her reputation in Ireland and internationally would be damaged.
Ms Loughman told the court she had met Mr Brown, a diamond dealer, in 2010 and he had assisted her with administrative and financial matters connected with the ballet company. They had lived together until unhappy differences had arisen in 2014.
The High Court had been told Ms Loughman was well known for her work promoting ballet and as a writer and a television presenter.
She had left Ireland to join the Perm State Ballet in Russia at the age of 14 and had set up a ballet company on her return to Ireland.