The High Court has refused applications by Stephen Griffin and David Ronan for preliminary or modular trials in a dispute over payments made by CTO Greenclean Environmental Solutions Limited to their pension funds. The court directed the case to continue towards a plenary trial in 2019 and made discovery orders by consent.
The applications sought early decisions on whether the liquidator’s claims were barred by limitation periods and on other legal issues. Griffin also sought a preliminary determination about whether he was a shadow or de facto director in connection with the company’s accounts, and asked the court to strike out parts of the liquidator’s reply as unsustainable.
The liquidator’s claims relate to five payments totalling €2,064,333 made to Griffin between February and May 2008, and a €600,000 payment to Ronan in January 2009. The liquidator had also amended the claim to seek disqualification orders against Griffin and/or Ronan. The judgment did not decide the merits of those claims or whether any payment was improper.
The respondents argued that resolving limitation issues first could avoid the cost and effort of gathering old evidence and obtaining expert advice. The judge said the applications required the court to assess their limitation arguments without a single agreed set of facts. The respondents had not agreed that facts accepted for a preliminary hearing would also be accepted at a later plenary hearing if the preliminary outcome went against them. The judge considered that this could create further disputes, appeals and delay.
The court also noted that the allegations of concealment and wrongful conduct in the liquidator’s reply could not be assessed without hearing evidence. It refused the applications, while observing that the applications highlighted difficulties in some of the liquidator’s claims. The judge said the liquidator would be well advised to abandon sooner rather than later any legal issues that could not be pursued sincerely at trial; the court did not decide which claims, if any, met that description.
The proceedings arose from claims connected with a company liquidation that began in 2012. The court said it would continue case-managing the case so it could be ready for a plenary trial in 2019. It also made discovery orders by consent, with discovery to be completed within six weeks, and suggested a further directions hearing for 12 February 2019, subject to further submissions.