An action taken by Dunnes Stores against a solicitor, Mr Noel Smyth, and a company for the return of a £500,000 deposit paid by Dunnes in relation to a property deal in north Dublin was settled at the High Court yesterday. No details of the settlement were revealed.
The case was due to resume at 11 a.m. yesterday but, after an hour of discussions between both sides, Mr John Gordon SC, with Mr Michael Cush, for Dunnes, told Mr Justice O'Higgins the matter had been settled.
Counsel asked for an order striking out the claim by Dunnes and counterclaims made by Mr Smyth, a solicitor and partner in the firm Noel Smyth & Partners, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, and Livingstone Properties Ltd, with a registered office at Archbishop Makarios Avenue, Limassol, Cyprus. The court heard Mr Smyth was a director of that company.
Mr Justice O'Higgins made the orders sought and said he was delighted to hear the matter had been resolved. He said he had no doubt the case would have gone on for a long time.
The case opened last Tuesday. Mr Smyth and Livingstone Properties Ltd were represented by Mr Dermot Gleeson SC and Mr Paul Gallagher SC.
Dunnes Stores Ltd had sought the return of a sum of £500,000 which it claimed it paid to Livingstone Properties Ltd in relation to a 1991 property deal involving lands at Ayrefield, Malahide Road, Co Dublin.
The company also sought orders setting aside a purported contract of sale of lands at Ayrefield purported to have been made in December 1991 between Dunnes and Livingstone in relation to which the £500,000 deposit was paid.
Mr Smyth had denied allegations of breach of duty and contract and also denied negligence. He counterclaimed that the proceedings were motivated out of malice against him and sought damages, including special damages.
Livingstone Properties Ltd also counterclaimed for damages and sought an order stating that it was entitled to forfeit the £500,000 deposit because of Dunnes' failure to complete the contract for sale of the Ayrefield land within the time limits set.
The action related to a land deal of December 1991 between Dunnes Stores Ltd and Livingstone Properties Ltd. Dunnes had claimed the contract for the deal was signed by Mr Smyth for Livingstone Properties.
Dunnes had claimed the deal was subject to planning permission and claimed that although planning permission was ultimately secured, it was "wholly useless" because it was conditional on expensive water, sewage, road and other works being carried out at a site adjacent to that at Ayrefield.
Dunnes claimed it had no control over those works and had no right to compel the owner of the other site, Gannon Homes Ltd, with a registered office at Amiens Street, Dublin, to do those works.
It claimed the cost of the works to be carried out and payments to be made amount to more than £1.2 million. It also claimed that Mr Smyth had in 1991 acted for Gannon Homes Ltd but Mr Smyth had denied that.