A HIGH Court judge has ruled that the owners of the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin are entitled to access the hotel's books and records held by the Marriott company operating the five-star hotel.
Torriam Hotel Operating Company Ltd, part of the Marriott international hotel group, must make available to the owners, Shelbourne Hotel Holding Company Ltd (SHHL), material including minutes of management meetings, its internal control system manual and details of internal audits and reports, Mr Justice Peter Kelly ruled.
The judge also directed that Torriam must provide details of actions it took as a result of any risk identified during an internal audit at the Shelbourne and details of the scope of a taskforce sent in by the Marriott Group to review the operation of the hotel.
He ordered the hotel owners should be given details of access rights to each computer system, customer names and details of employees including their salaries, bonuses, benefits, disciplinary action and tax information.
The owners had sought access to the books and records after claiming the 262-room hotel, bought and refurbished by the Shelbourne Hotel Holding Company at a cost of €1 million per room, was being run in a "shambolic style" with nobody in charge.
Torriam denied those claims and said it had complied with its obligations under a 20-year hotel management agreement.
It also said the public airing of the owner's claims was causing "huge damage" to the hotel and sought a stay on the proceedings by the owners to terminate the management agreement to allow the matter go to arbitration.
The judge agreed yesterday to grant that stay pending arbitration but he refused an application by Torriam's counsel, Michael McDowell, to grant a stay until Monday on his order directing access to the hotel's books and records pending a possible appeal to the Supreme Court. The judge said such a stay would be "a negation" of the efforts to have the matter dealt with expeditiously through the Commercial Court given its urgency.
Mr McDowell said his side may seek to appeal the order to the Supreme Court today or over the Christmas vacation.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Kelly said insofar as there may be a genuine concern by Torriam about the confidentiality of the material Shelbourne Hotel would get, his order would be subject to a requirement that any information be used solely for the purpose of the litigation, arbitration and SHHL's dealings with the hotel's creditors including the Revenue Commissioners.