Commercial Court hears of dispute between owners of Wicklow country house wedding venue

A Philippines-based Irish businessman arrived with his wife to stay at his “owner’s suite” in the four-star Tinakilly House Hotel in Wicklow only to find that a wedding event had been offered exclusivity of the entire venue, it has been claimed in Commercial Court proceedings.

Gerard Lane, of Essensa, 21st Drive, BCG, Manila, claims his business partner, Denis Connolly, who resides in Tinakilly House Hotel, refused to allow him access to his suite, which he says he had never before had an issue about and where he expected to stay “as per usual”.

Mr Lane said he was not informed in advance about the wedding event in July 2022 and the whole tone of the exchange that day was “very aggressive”.

This was, he said, the start of the breakdown of a partnership they had formed after they met through a friend in 2013.

The partnership bought Tinakilly and a hotel in Cadiz, Spain, where Mr Connolly said he also had an owner’s suite for his sole use whenever he chose to stay.

Mr Lane seeks a number of orders and declarations from the court, including the dissolution of the partnership.

On Monday Mr Justice Michael Twomey agreed, on the application of Declan McGrath SC, for Mr Lane, to admit the proceedings to the fast-track commercial list. Counsel said that while there was no appearance for Mr Connolly, there had been without prejudice communications with him and he was consenting to entry of the case to the Commercial Court.

In an affidavit, Mr Lane said the Tinakilly hotel was bought for €1.05 million in 2013 from a receiver by the partnership and the agreement was that he (Mr Lane) owned 49 per cent and Mr Connolly 51 per cent.

In 2017 he said they bought the Finca Monasterio boutique hotel in Cadiz for €2.5 million with him owning 51 per cent and Mr Connolly 49 per cent. Both the Irish and Spanish hotels are popular wedding venues and in total worth more €12 million.

Mr Lane said he contributed an estimated €1.8 million to Tinakilly and in excess of €1.5 million to Finca Monasterio. Despite these significant contributions, he said he has not received any payments from the partnership to date.

After the disagreement upon his arrival in Tinakilly in July 2022, he said, he decided to “let the tension between us cool down” with the passage of time. But in May 2023, he learned the defendant had lodged a planning permission for Tinakilly from a company called Greenhill Development (BC) Ltd as the legal owner of the hotel.

This caused him significant concern and there followed a number of emails from Mr Lane to Mr Connolly who in August 2023 did not address concerns about the partnership but only addressed the July 2022 disagreement, he said.

In the email Mr Connolly accused Mr Lane of being “wrong in your assumptions” about the exclusive use of the hotel for weddings and “wrong in your disgusting and bullying treatment of me and my fellow co-workers”.

Mr Lane said he travelled to Ireland in November last when he met the auditor for Tinakilly, who agreed to act as an intermediary.

The auditor later said Mr Connolly wanted to deal with the impasse on an amicable basis. The auditor also came up with proposals for the buying out of the other party’s interests in both hotel businesses.

Mr Lane’s lawyers then corresponded with Mr Connolly and also sought financial information regarding the hotels from him which he said was not forthcoming.

Mr Lane’s lawyers issued a formal notice of dissolution of the partnership on May 31st last, which prompted Mr Connolly’s reply denying the existence of the partnership.

In his application for entry to the Commercial Court, Mr Lane’s counsel also said he was reserving his position over whether to bring an injunction application seeking the financial information.

Mr Justice Twomey urged the parties to consider mediation at this early stage.