Irish businessman’s lawsuit against Qatari hotel owners thrown out by High Court
High Court Reporters
An Irish businessman who is suing the Qatari Royal Family, owners of the Maybourne luxury hotels group for alleged defamation and conspiracy cannot have his actions heard in Ireland, the High Court ruled.
Ronnie Delany, a long-time associate of developer Paddy McKillen, who previously had an ongoing business relationship with the Maybourne group’s Qatari owners, claims he was defamed in letters he alleges were published to persons in Ireland as part of a conspiracy against him.
He claims one of the letters was published in Ireland to McKillen.
His proceedings were brought against parties including Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of the Gulf State of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabber Al Thani, who is a businessman and Qatari politician, Maybourne Hotels Ltd, and the hotel group's CEO Marc Socker. Maybourne owns and operates The Berkeley, Claridge's and The Connaught hotels in London.
In separate but related proceedings, Delany sued another company in the hotel group, SAS Sociéte D' Exploitation Et De Détention Hoteliére Vista (SEDH Vista), which owns and operates a hotel on the French Riviera, and its legal representative, Gilles De Boissieu, who is also alleged to have distributed a letter that damaged the Irish businessman's reputation.
Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani is also a defendant in the action against the France-based defendants.
The claims were denied, and the defendants sought to have the actions struck out on the basis that the Irish courts lacked the jurisdiction to hear the claims.
It was also claimed that Delany did not obtain the leave of the High Court to issue and serve the proceedings outside of the jurisdiction.
It was argued that the claims cannot be heard before the Irish courts and should have been brought before the French and UK courts.
Delany opposed the strikeout applications.
He also brought his own application in the SEDH Vista proceedings for an order amending the papers to allow the case be dealt with under an EU regulation, known as Brussels Recast, which governs the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters in the EU.
In a judgment refusing to allow the proceedings to go ahead in Ireland, Justice Conor Dignam said that in essence, Delany claimed that a dispute arose between McKillen and the Al Thanis.
As part of that dispute, it was claimed that the defendants set out to and/or conspired to damage Delany, who, it is claimed, was perceived as being in McKillen’s camp.
The judge ruled that, in relation to the proceedings against the SEDH Vista, he was not satisfied that the Irish High Court had jurisdiction in the claim against SEDH Vista itself, or against De Boissieu, under the Brussels Recast regulation on the basis that it was not established that the alleged harmful event occurred in Ireland.
He was also satisfied that court rules were not complied with in relation to the other defendant in the SEDH Vista proceedings, Sheikh Al Thani.
In relation to the other proceedings against Maybourne and three personal defendants, he was satisfied that the court would be entitled to assume jurisdiction in circumstances where Delany had established a good arguable case in respect of the tort of defamation.
However, he was not satisfied, having regard to all of the circumstances, that the case was a proper one for service of the proceedings outside the jurisdiction.
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