The Commercial Court has refused a bid by United Arab Emirates company Mecon FZE to halt Irish proceedings concerning alleged transfers of assets linked to the Quinn family.
Mr Justice Peter Charleton delivered the ruling on 7 January 2013 in litigation brought by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, Quinn Investments Sweden AB and Leif Baecklund against Seán Quinn, members of his family and numerous companies.
The plaintiffs allege a coordinated scheme was used to move or dilute ownership of valuable international property so that assets would not be available to satisfy debts owed to Anglo Irish Bank. Those claims, including allegations of conspiracy, breaches of share pledges, document manipulation and disregard of Irish court orders, have not been determined.
Mecon became involved through shares in Mack Soft, an Indian company connected with a property at Hi Tech Park in Hyderabad. The plaintiffs claim the property was worth about €60 million and that a June 2011 share issue dramatically diluted existing control before newly issued shares were transferred to Mecon.
Mecon denied being owned or controlled by the Quinn family and argued that the appropriate place to decide the dispute was India, where separate proceedings had already produced an interim injunction restricting dealings with the shares.
Charleton J rejected the stay application. He found that the Irish proceedings concerned a much broader alleged conspiracy involving several defendants, assets and transactions. Splitting Mecon's part of the case into separate Indian proceedings risked duplication, unavailable witnesses and inconsistent findings.
The judge said the plaintiffs had produced sufficient material at this preliminary stage to show that their allegations against Mecon were reasonably capable of proof. He did not decide that those allegations were true.
The court concluded that Mecon's joinder in the Irish case was sensible and just and refused to stay the proceedings against it.