A nursing home owner has sued two newspapers for what he claimed yesterday were false reports that he had sold his nursing home to Ms Therese Lipsett, owner of the Rostrevor Nursing Home which featured in High Court proceedings last week.
Mr Justice Paul Gilligan was told that libel proceedings had been issued by Mr Joseph O'Brien, owner of Church View Nursing Home, New Cabra Road, Dublin, against the Sunday Times and the Irish Sun.
Mr Séamus Ó Tuathail SC, for Mr O'Brien, told the court that the newspapers had carried false stories on Sunday and on Monday last to the effect that Mr O'Brien had sold his nursing home to Ms Lipsett for €3 million.
He was granted leave to serve short notice of a motion seeking injunctions against both newspapers restraining them from repeating the alleged defamatory reports, and directing the Sunday Times to delete the article from its internet website.
Mr Ó Tuathail said the Sunday Times carried an article, under the headline "Lipsett buys second nursing home after neglect dispute", a false story, which was almost identical in the Sun the following day.
"Over the last two weeks there has been an awful amount of publicity about the Rostrevor Nursing Home relating to an application made by a Health Board to close down that particular home and various shocking allegations were made in that application," said Mr Ó Tuathail.
These were reported widely by newspapers and the media generally. Mr Ó Tuathail said the Sunday Times and the Sun stories had recited in large detail the High Court proceedings and the only new material was in the introduction: "Therese Lipsett, the millionaire at the centre of an elderly neglect dispute, has bought a second nursing home in Dublin for €3 million.
Lipsett (52), who successfully fought off closure of Rostrevor House, her controversial Rathgar nursing home, has bought Church View, a 44-bed nursing home in Cabra, in the north of the city." He said the article was accompanied by a photograph of Church View.
"That is totally incorrect," Mr Ó Tuathail said. "The allegation that Ms Lipsett has bought our premises is totally incorrect and is false in effect.
"Unfortunately these particular stories have strongly connected in the public mind and transferred in large part all the allegations and fears caused by them to residents in and relatives connected with the Church View Nursing Home."
Mr Ó Tuathail said talks between Mr O'Brien and Ms Lipsett over the possible sale of Church View broke down on August 25th, and there was no prospect of a sale. The breakdown had no connection with allegations which were reported in newspapers immediately afterwards.