Susan Magnier backs billionaire husband John over alleged €15m land deal
Susan Magnier, the wife of billionaire John Magnier, has told the High Court of kitchen table negotiations which led to a €15 million offer for a tract of land in Tipperary,
Appearing by video link at the High Court, Mrs Magnier said she was present when the vendors received their €15 million offer. Mrs Magnier said the proposed vendors and an estate agent then moved to another room to ring the trustees and a beneficiary of Barne Estate before returning to the meeting.
Advertisement
She told Caren Geoghegan SC, for the Magniers, that all parties afterwards had a "light-hearted" dinner in the wake of the alleged deal.
Lawyers acting for Mr Magnier, founder of the world-famous Coolmore Stud, have claimed before the High Court that a US-based construction magnate, Maurice Regan, the preferred buyer, engaged in a "full-frontal assault" on Mr Magnier's claimed deal to buy 751 acres of land in Tipperary for €15 million.
Mr Magnier's proceedings claim that Barne Estate reneged on the alleged deal, preferring to sell the land at the higher price of €22.25 millon to Mr Regan, the founder of the New York building firm JT Magen.
Mr Magnier – along with his adult children – wants to enforce the alleged deal.
Advertisement
They say the deal was struck at an August 22nd, 2023, kitchen meeting at Mr Magnier's Coolmore home. They also claim an exclusivity agreement that was in effect from August 31st to September 30th stipulated that the estate would not permit its representatives to solicit or encourage any expression of interest, inquiry or offer on the property from anyone other than Mr Magnier.
Barne Estate has been held for the benefit of Richard Thomson-Moore and others by a Jersey trust.
The Magnier side has sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group, seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been "unequivocally" agreed.
The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement, as they needed the consent of the trustees to finalise any agreement and subsequently they preferred to sell the estate to Mr Regan.
Advertisement
Mr Regan is not a party to the case.
Mrs Magnier, whose husband concluded his evidence in the case on Friday morning, said that she was present at the kitchen table meeting with the defendants and estate agent John Stokes on the night of August 22nd, 2023, when the purchase was allegedly agreed.
Mrs Magnier claims that after the Thomson-Moores were offered the €15 million, Mr Thomson-Moore allegedly told the table that he, his wife, Anna, and Mr Stokes had to make phone calls to the trustees and Mr Thomson-Moore's sister to get their consent and went to another room.
Mrs Magnier said that when Mr Stokes returned he was "elated" that a deal was done and was "clearly delighted".
Advertisement
"Everyone was happy. We all shook hands and we asked if they would stay for dinner and they said they would," said Mrs Magnier.
Niall F Buckley SC, for the defendants, said Mr Stokes will give evidence that he never said the trustees were going to be contacted on the night and that phone evidence will show that no trustee was contacted immediately after the offer.
"I clearly heard them say they were going out to call the trustees and to call the sister," said Mrs Magnier.
Ireland
Billionaire Magnier claims his name being 'slaught...
Read More
Farm manager at Coolmore Joe Holohan, who was also present at the kitchen table meeting, said that Mr Magnier wanted to get a deal done on the night, as there was "no messing around" with Mr Magnier.
Advertisement
Mr Holohan claims that Mr Stokes and the Thomson-Moores left the kitchen saying they had to go to make phone calls and that when they returned to the table that Mr Stokes was smiling "from ear to ear" and that all parties then shook hands.
"It was like a weight off their shoulders, they came back different, very happy people, and we shook hands," Mr Holohan told the court.
The case continues before Mr Justice Max Barrett next week.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Father Ted and trans rights critic Graham Linehan pleads not guilty to harassing and smashing phone belonging to a transgender woman
Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan has pleaded not guilty to harassing a transgender woman and damaging her phone. The Irish comedy writer, 56, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court today to deny the charges of harassing Sophia Brooks on social media and damaging her mobile in October. The Bafta-winning writer, who also came up with TV sitcoms The IT Crowd and Black Books, has become a vocal critic of the trans rights movement in recent years. Linehan, who created Father Ted in the 1990s with fellow Irish writer Arthur Mathews, said in a post on X in April that the allegations were related to an incident at the Battle of Ideas conference in London on October 19. Court documents show Linehan is charged with harassing the alleged victim by posting abusive comments about her on social media between October 11 and October 27, and damaging her phone to the value of £369 on the day of the conference. The 56-year-old, who once dubbed himself 'the most hated man on the internet', told how jobs 'fell away' when he became embroiled in the transgender debate. He was banned in 2020 from Twitter after writing 'Men aren't women tho' before later being reinstated by X founder Elon Musk. A long-awaited Father Ted musical was then axed in 2022 because of the 56-year-old's controversial political opinions. When two venues cancelled his 2023 Edinburgh Fringe shows, the now-divorced Linehan opted to perform his set outside the Scottish Parliament. The 56-year-old sat in seats in front of the dock wearing glasses, a white shirt, grey suit jacket and grey jeans, and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and to deny the charges. Some supporters of the defendant were turned away from the court because of a shortage of seats. Deputy District Judge Louise Balmain told Linehan his trial would take place on September 4 this year at the same court. He was freed on bail with the condition not to contact the complainant directly or indirectly. It comes as Linehan last month praised the Supreme Court's decision to confirm that the word woman is based on biological sex, meaning trans women are legally not women. Linehan said trans women should be excluded from women's spaces as they were not women - a view that has now been backed up by the Supreme Court. But although he hailed the Supreme Court decision, he said the war on woke has only just begun. Speaking to MailOnline, Linehan described the moment he realised the judge had ruled in favour of biology - and revealed his hopes for his own comedy comeback. He said: 'I was in the courtroom. The judge said we had to respect the court and not have any reaction. 'When we heard it, you could feel the crackle go around the room. 'The moment the judge left, it just sunk in that we won after 10 years of fighting this nonsense. It's good news but this is only one issue in a lot of woke issues. 'The big problem we have is with TV commissioners. The artists are still out there but they have to get past these people who don't really care about art. They care about imposing their beliefs on people. 'If you look back at the 90s with Britpop, British art was famous round all over the world and there was a real sense of excitement. 'But over the last 10 years there's been a dearth of notable stuff. Because these people have tied their hands and feet together. 'It's all very safe - almost trying not to get noticed. 'If you can't say that reality is real, then you can't do jokes about reality. 'That's what all artists do. If you deny the truth of the exterior world, they can't do that. 'But I don't think we will forever be able to stop funny people being funny. People will get sick of it. 'There's going to be a fightback [against wokeness]. Young people are sick of the rules. I think it will naturally fade away and we will come back to freedom of speech.'
BreakingNews.ie
6 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Gardaí arrest man in connection to robbery with a knife in Dublin
Gardaí have arrested a man in connection with a robbery at a retail premises in South Dublin earlier this week. On bank holiday Monday evening a man armed with a knife entered a filling station in Ballybrack Village. Advertisement He threatened staff and took a sum of cash before fleeing the scene. Gardaí from the Shankill Detective Unit arrested a man in the Shankill area of Dublin in connection with the investigation earlier on Friday, He is being detained at a Garda Station in the Dublin Region.
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Cliffs of Moher: Inquest told boy slipped in puddle and fell to his death
A 12-year-old boy fell to his death at Ireland's Cliffs of Moher after slipping in a puddle close to the edge, an inquest has Zhao was with his mother and her friends at the beauty spot on the County Clare coast on 23 July last year when he walked ahead of the group.A French tourist who witnessed him fall told Clare Coroner's Court she saw him slip and try to pull himself up by grasping at grass, before he disappeared over the edge. The coroner embraced Zhihan's distraught mother after recording a verdict of accidental death. Zhihan and his mother, Xianhong Huang, both Chinese nationals, had arrived in Ireland 12 days before his fatal fall. In her deposition, Ms Huang said that Zhihan was walking ahead of her on the Cliffs of Moher trail and she lost sight of him."My son walked very fast and was ahead of us by 50 metres," she said."As there was only one path, I thought we would meet him along the way. "When I didn't, I walked to the visitor centre and I checked the visitor centre."Unable to find him at the visitor centre, she returned to the path to search for him and when there was no sign of him, she reported him Huang said she last saw Zhihan at 13:00 that day and the court heard she provided gardaí (Irish police) with a photo of him she had taken earlier on the through an interpreter at the inquest in Kilrush, County Clare, Ms Huang, wiping away tears, asked: "What exactly caused Zhihan to fall from the cliffs?"Clare County Coroner Isobel O'Dea told the grieving mother that the evidence of an eyewitness would help answer that question. French tourist, Marion Tourgon, told the inquest she witnessed Zhihan falling over the edge at about 13:45 that Tourgon explained she was at the edge of the cliffs with her husband and two children and they were taking a selfie at the time. She describing seeing a young Asian boy, who was alone, come into view."I saw him slipping in the puddle that appears in the photo that my husband sent to the police," the witness said. "His right foot slipped into the puddle, with him trying to stop himself from falling with his left foot but his left foot ended up in the air."Ms Tourgon added: "It was very quick - he found himself in an awkward position with his left foot in a void over the cliff and his right knee on the edge of the cliff."She continued: "His right knee eventually fell into the void over the cliff and he was trying to grasp the grass with his hands to pull himself up. "He didn't shout and there was no noise."The Tourgon family then phoned the emergency air, land and sea search operation began involving the Irish Coast Guard, gardaí, and Irish civil defence volunteers who used boats, drones, divers and a helicopter. Five day search for missing boy A police witness, Garda Colm Collins, told the inquest he received a call at 14:00 that day after a male was seen falling off the edge of the Cliffs of Moher. He said that the Irish Coast Guard had spotted a body floating in the water at the base of the cliffs. The court heard a lifeboat was launched but it was was not able to access the site where the body was spotted due to the sea was another five days before Zhihan's body was eventually recovered from the boy was found by a fisherman, Matthew O'Halloran, from Corofin, County spotted a body facedown and arms extended in the water between Doolin and the Aran Islands shortly after 10:00 local time on 28 July 2024. Mr O'Halloran alerted the Irish Coast Guard and its members retrieved Zhihan's body and brought it ashore at coroner said post-mortem results had confirmed that Zhihan died from multiple traumatic injuries consistent with a fall from a height."It is clear from evidence we heard that Zhihan slipped off the cliffs rather than any other way. His death would have been very quick - instantaneous."Addressing the boy's mother, she said: "I can't imagine how upsetting this is for you."Ms O'Dea also extended her sympathies to Zhihan's father who was not present at the embraced Ms Huang as she left the coroner's accident was the second fatal fall at the Cliffs of Moher within a three-month period last year. In May 2024, a student in her 20s lost her footing while walking with friends and fell to her death. Since August last year, large sections of the Cliffs of Moher trail have been closed due to safety the time, the Clare Local Development Company confirmed that it was taking the action following the two fatal accidents.
