The High Court has declined to allow businessman Ronnie Delany’s defamation and conspiracy proceedings against parties linked to the Maybourne hotel group to continue in Ireland.
Mr Justice Conor Dignam ruled on three jurisdiction applications arising from two sets of proceedings concerning letters sent to Mr Delany in April 2022 withdrawing his access to hotel sites while unspecified matters were examined.
Mr Delany alleges that the letters defamed him and formed part of a conspiracy connected with a dispute between businessman Paddy McKillen and members of the Al Thani family. Those allegations remain untested and the defendants have not yet delivered defences.
In proceedings against Maybourne Hotels Limited, Marc Socker and two members of the Al Thani family, the judge found that Mr Delany had established a sufficiently arguable defamation claim capable of engaging an Irish jurisdictional rule because one letter was read by Anne-Marie Ryan in Ireland.
However, that was not enough. The court held that Mr Delany had failed to establish that Ireland was clearly the appropriate forum. The dispute was more closely connected with England and Wales, including through the companies, hotel projects and alleged underlying conduct. The judge therefore concluded that the case was not a proper one for service outside Ireland.
The separate proceedings against French company SEDH, Gilles de Boissieu and Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani concerned a letter relating to the Maybourne Riviera in France. The court found no evidence that the allegedly defamatory material had been published or republished in Ireland and held that the claims against the French defendants should not proceed here.
The claim against Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani also encountered a procedural problem because permission to serve him outside Ireland was obtained only after the proceedings had been issued.
The judge said France was the more appropriate forum for that claim. The precise form of the resulting orders was left for further submissions.