A legal action brought over the sale of prize-winning cattle belonging to a Co Cork family has been adjourned.
More than 1,000 cows and calves belonging to Peter and Tracey Kingston, from Craden Hill Farm at Nohoval in Kinsale, which was placed in receivership last year arising from an unpaid loan, were put up for auction last week.
The Cork County Sheriff, Sinéad McNamara, who took possession of the property in December, last week secured an injunction because of fears protesters intended to prevent and disrupt the sale of the herd.
The sale was designed to reduce the Kingstons’ debt of €2.5 million to ACC Loan Management.
Mr Justice Paul Gilligan granted the Sheriff an injunction against members of the Land League and New Land League, their spokesman Jerry Beades and any other party with notice of the order, restraining them interfering with the auction. The auction proceeded on April 12th and the cattle were sold.
It later emerged that two parties who successfully bid on some 500 animals in the herd had failed to pay for them and the animals may have to be resold.
When the case returned before the High Court on Tuesday, Frank Callanan SC, for the Sheriff, said she wanted the injunction extended arising from "significant" developments.
Counsel said there was some urgency because a licence allowing for export of the cattle expires at the end of the month.
Set aside
Mr Beades, representing himself, disputed the validity of the injunction and argued it was flawed. He told the court he wanted the order set aside and an opportunity to “clear his name”.
Mr Beades said he was unhappy with certain statements made about him to the media which he said he attributed to Ms McNamara. He was not involved with the Kingstons and was only there to represent other parties who had not been paid, he said.
Mr Beades also said he had not been properly served with relevant documents concerning the case.
During some tense exchanges with the court, Mr Beades asked the judge to recuse himself from hearing the action and accused the judge of not being fair to him.
The judge rejected Mr Beade’s accusations and said there was no reason why he should not hear the case.
Mr Beades was trying “to provoke” the court into taking a certain course of action which it would not do, the judge added.
After an adjournment, the matter was put back to Thursday to allow Mr Beades consider documents in the case.
The cattle at the centre of the dispute were brought to auction last week after ACC Loan Management obtained judgment for almost €2.5 million arising out of the Kingston's failure to repay loans. The Kingston family are former winners of the RTÉ television programme Ireland's Fittest Family.