The High Court began this week to hear the case brought by Co Mayo cattle dealer Finbar Tolan against Aurivo Co-operative Society Ltd.

Tolan claims the co-op cost him his business by withdrawing credit from him and barring him from attending its marts in Ballinrobe and Balla, Co Mayo, as well as Ballymote, Co Sligo. Aurivo contends that it never had a valid business agreement with Tolan.

Before the president of the High Court, Justice Nicholas Kearns, Tolan produced a written agreement dated 16 July 2012 and signed by the managers of the three marts as well as Martin Walsh, Aurivo’s general manager for marts.

The document stated that Tolan would receive two weeks’ credit on the payment of dry cows and bulls – instead of up to three previously. The court heard this was on the condition that he had an overdraft facility in place with his bank by 10 August, failing which “all offers were off the table”.

While Aurivo said stricter credit terms were imposed because the marts fell under the regulation of the Property Services Regulatory Authority from July 2012, Tolan told the court this was mentioned to him only after he expanded out of cows. “I disrupted the heifer and bullock trade and existing agreements,” he claimed.

Tolan told Justice Kearns that he subsequently obtained a €200,000 overdraft from Ulster Bank and gave a copy of the offer letter to Aurivo, but was still in disagreement with Walsh about the conditions of their future business.

Tolan claimed Walsh ultimately barred him from attending Aurivo marts.

Representing Aurivo, Ken Fogarty SC argued that the offer letter from Tolan’s bank was not sufficient.

“In fairness, what is your beef about this?” Justice Kearns asked the defence lawyer. “He never had that money,” Fogarty said. The judge replied: “He has now told me he did and backed it up with statements.”

The judge also noted that Aurivo had not committed to sell cattle to Tolan.

Tolan told the court that as a result of the dispute, his “name was destroyed all over the place”. He is claiming €4.5million in compensation.

Aurivo’s lawyer, however, argued that Tolan was never barred from the marts but ceased trading because his business was already failing at the time.

Citing a forensic audit of Tolan’s accounts, Fogarty said his dealings with the marts and Dawn Meats “was a non-profit transaction that was taking place across the board”. He added that Tolan was hundreds of thousands of euro in debt towards marts in the west, which witnesses confirmed before the court but Tolan did not accept.

The stakes are made higher by a separate judgement that went to the Supreme Court, in which the High Court ordered Tolan to pay more than €150,000 owed to Aurivo as their relationship unravelled – but froze the execution of the judgement until the end of the current case.

The case continues in the High Court.