‘Unequivocal' sale agreed with businessman John Magnier to buy Barne Estate, High Court hears

Irish Times

4 days ago

The owner of the Barne Estate in Co Tipperary had agreed a sale to billionaire businessman John Magnier before being 'beguiled' by an alternative bidder, the Commercial Court has heard.
Mr Magnier, his son John Paul Magnier and his daughter Katherine Wachman have taken legal proceedings against Barne Estate owner Richard Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey), the holding company of the Barne Estate shares, over a purported sale that occurred on August 22nd, 2023.
They claim Mr Magnier and Mr Thomson-Moore agreed to the sale of the 751-acre (303-hectare) estate in Co Tipperary for a price of €15 million.
The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement to sell the estate to Mr Magnier and that they subsequently agreed to sell it for €22.5 million to construction magnate Mr Regan, founder of the New York building firm JT Magen. Mr Regan is not a party to the case.
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Mr Magnier's barrister Paul Gallagher SC said he could prove it was an 'unequivocal case' that Mr Thomson-Moore and his wife Anna had agreed to a sale of the land at a meeting in Mr Magnier's Coolmore home.
Contemporaneous notes taken by the parties involved would show it was 'indisputable' that the deal had taken place, he told Mr Justice Max Barrett.
The Thomson-Moores had sought to 'take refuge' in the land being held in a discretionary trust in Jersey and therefore they did not have approval to sell the estate to Mr Magnier on August 22nd, Mr Gallagher said.
However, the barrister claimed the trust in question had 'no real status' and no phone call was made by the Thomson-Moores on the night of the alleged sale. This proved that they did not need the approval of any trust to sell the estate.
Businessman John Magnier at the Four Courts in Dublin. Photograph: Collins Courts
The Barne estate was put up for sale on by Savills and local agent John Stokes on July 16th or 17th, the court was told.
Mr Magnier made an initial offer of €11.25 million on August 16th. Three bids had been made and rejected and no progress had been made on a sale.
He then invited, through intermediaries, Thomson-Moores to his home on August 22nd in order to complete the sale.
Mr Magnier made it clear that 'if they were not interested in doing a deal, there is no point in coming', Mr Gallagher said and he would never have done the deal with the Thomson-Moores if it was thought they had to refer it back to the trustees for approval.
The deal was then done on August 22nd, Mr Gallagher claimed, with a number of ancillary terms that a long-term employee of the estate, Colm O'Flaherty, would be offered a job and the farm machinery would be sold separately.
An exclusivity deal was done so that Mr Magnier could plough the land. The sale was supposed to have been included a month to the day after the agreement.
However, it subsequently emerged that during this period the Thomson-Moores, encouraged by Mr Stokes, thought they could consider other offers, Mr Gallagher told the court.
They 'foolishly and wrongly believed' that they could contract with Mr Regan, the US-based businessman who offered €22.5 million for the estate.
Mr Gallagher contended that the Thomson-Moores had therefore been 'beguiled' by Mr Regan.
Mr Magnier barrister said not only were there were a significant number of documents confirming the agreement 'but there are many versions of them'.
The case is expected to last at least 13 days and Mr Magnier will be the first witness.