The Court of Appeal this Friday suspended execution of a High Court judgement made against Finbar Tolan in May 2015 as part of his multi million-euro dispute with Aurivo co-op, pending the outcome of his leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

A stay has also been placed on the matter of costs relating to Tolan's original appeal of the High Court judgement, which was dismissed earlier this month in the Court of Appeal.

In May 2015 Tolan brought a €4.5m action against Aurivo co-op, claiming that 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.

Alleged breach of contract

Tolan claimed he had a formal contract with the co-op and that its actions in ending its dealings with him three years ago amounted to a breach of contract.

However, in his judgement in the case last year, Justice Nicholas Kearns, then president of the High Court, found that the business relationship between Tolan and the co-op was not governed by any binding legal requirement and costs were ordered to be paid in favour of Aurivo.

Tolan then appealed the judgement, but his appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 5 May 2016.

The stakes in this appeal case were made higher by a separate judgement in the High Court on 4 November 2013 where Tolan was ordered to pay €154,830.66 owed to Aurivo as their relationship deteriorated. The execution of this judgment had been suspended until judgement on Tolan’s appeal was heard.

Tolan now has 28 days from Friday 27 May to lodge his intention to appeal to the Supreme Court, failing which the stays on both the High Court judgement and the costs relating to his dismissed appeal will be lifted.

It is now unlikely that the connected cases will come to a conclusion before the courts close for summer vacation in August and September.