If Coolmore’s claim that the €15m verbal and handshake deal between John Magnier and Richard Thomson-Moore to buy Barne Estate was binding, was accepted by the High Court, it would “turn 400 years of conveyancing on its head”, senior counsel for the Barne Estate side Martin Hayden told the High Court last week.
He accused John Magnier’s legal team of suggesting that “there can never be a discussion between parties, there can never be a suggestion I will sell it to you for €500,000, or whatever number is, without that then becoming a binding agreement”.
Mr Hayden argued that “deals are struck all the time, at the level of principle, that are never intended to be binding until formal contracts are in place”.
“In practice, nobody commits themselves to an open contract for the sale of land,” he argued. He referred to Mr Magnier’s repeated evidence that he left key decisions and matters related to the Barne Estate purchase to his Coolmore advisers.
“Mr Magnier wants Barne and everybody goes about making sure that happens,” said Mr Hayden. “He’s described himself as careful, as conscientious. And yet he sits there, trying to say, ‘I leave it to everybody else around me’.”
“When there’s an inconvenient truth, an inconvenient document, an inconvenient fact, it’s somebody else, ‘It’s not me, I leave it to my experts’. He sits there and says, ‘I left school at 15, I wouldn’t know any of this’.”
“He expects the court to believe that having bought over 20,000 acres in or about south Tipperary, not to mention all of the other areas, not to mention having 80,000 employees in England alone through the healthcare business and so forth, not to mention all of the successes in Coolmore... but he wants you to believe that there’s nothing sitting up there other than a bungalow, that leaves everything to everybody else,” Mr Hayden said.
He accused Coomore’s legal team of “scrambling at straws” by referring to 58 documents to prove that the 22 August 2023 deal was binding.
“Maybe it’s not the best analogy, but a bullet in the back of the head is much more effective than spraying machine gun bullets all over the room if that’s what you’re trying to achieve,” Mr Hayden said.
He accused the Coolmore plaintiffs of changing their argument about whether the Thomson-Moores had the authority to sell the estate on the night, and whether the land or the company that owned the land was subject to the agreement.
“Is he [Mr Magnier] saying he bought the land or is he saying he bought an option, he bought the company? He seems to flip and flop depending on which particular problem he has to see off,” Mr Hayden said.
John Magnier and his family claim that Richard Thomson-Moore entered a binding deal to sell the land or the company that owns the land on 22 August 2023.
Richard Thomson-Moore arriving at the High Court, Co Dublin with his wife Anna. \ Tom Honan
If Coolmore’s claim that the €15m verbal and handshake deal between John Magnier and Richard Thomson-Moore to buy Barne Estate was binding, was accepted by the High Court, it would “turn 400 years of conveyancing on its head”, senior counsel for the Barne Estate side Martin Hayden told the High Court last week.
He accused John Magnier’s legal team of suggesting that “there can never be a discussion between parties, there can never be a suggestion I will sell it to you for €500,000, or whatever number is, without that then becoming a binding agreement”.
Mr Hayden argued that “deals are struck all the time, at the level of principle, that are never intended to be binding until formal contracts are in place”.
“In practice, nobody commits themselves to an open contract for the sale of land,” he argued. He referred to Mr Magnier’s repeated evidence that he left key decisions and matters related to the Barne Estate purchase to his Coolmore advisers.
“Mr Magnier wants Barne and everybody goes about making sure that happens,” said Mr Hayden. “He’s described himself as careful, as conscientious. And yet he sits there, trying to say, ‘I leave it to everybody else around me’.”
“When there’s an inconvenient truth, an inconvenient document, an inconvenient fact, it’s somebody else, ‘It’s not me, I leave it to my experts’. He sits there and says, ‘I left school at 15, I wouldn’t know any of this’.”
“He expects the court to believe that having bought over 20,000 acres in or about south Tipperary, not to mention all of the other areas, not to mention having 80,000 employees in England alone through the healthcare business and so forth, not to mention all of the successes in Coolmore... but he wants you to believe that there’s nothing sitting up there other than a bungalow, that leaves everything to everybody else,” Mr Hayden said.
He accused Coomore’s legal team of “scrambling at straws” by referring to 58 documents to prove that the 22 August 2023 deal was binding.
“Maybe it’s not the best analogy, but a bullet in the back of the head is much more effective than spraying machine gun bullets all over the room if that’s what you’re trying to achieve,” Mr Hayden said.
He accused the Coolmore plaintiffs of changing their argument about whether the Thomson-Moores had the authority to sell the estate on the night, and whether the land or the company that owned the land was subject to the agreement.
“Is he [Mr Magnier] saying he bought the land or is he saying he bought an option, he bought the company? He seems to flip and flop depending on which particular problem he has to see off,” Mr Hayden said.
John Magnier and his family claim that Richard Thomson-Moore entered a binding deal to sell the land or the company that owns the land on 22 August 2023.
Richard Thomson-Moore arriving at the High Court, Co Dublin with his wife Anna. \ Tom Honan
SHARING OPTIONS