Mayo cattle dealer loses High Court case over mart credit dispute

A cattle dealer from Co Mayo has lost a High Court case against his former solicitor over a dispute involving mart credit with Connacht Gold Co-operative Society Limited.

Finbar Tolan, from Claremorris, was stopped by the co-op from buying cows on credit at Balla, Ballinrobe and Ballymote marts in 2012.

Tolan brought an action to the High Court against Connacht Gold in 2015 with solicitor John Brady representing him.

The cattle dealer claimed that Connacht Gold reneged on an agreement to give him two weeks credit to buy cull cows and refused to allow him to bid for cows on credit at Balla Mart on 11 August 2012.

He claimed that as a result he was unable to buy cows from elsewhere and lost his contract to supply cows to Dawn Meats, causing his business to collapse.

The president of the High Court dismissed Tolan’s claims during an initial court case in May 2015.

In that case, the president found that during the summer of 2012 Connacht Gold managers were concerned that Finbar Tolan was overtrading on mart credit.

“They wanted to reduce their exposure. The president accepted when Connacht Gold representatives broached the subject of agreeing a limit on his credit at a meeting on 9 August 2012, he walked out on them.

“The president found that Finbar Tolan had no right to insist that Connacht Gold allow him to buy cows on credit. He decided that a document signed by Finbar Tolan and Connacht Gold representatives at a meeting on 16 July 2012 did not embody any agreement to continue to give him credit. He concluded that this document recorded an interim arrangement,” the High Court judgment states.

Breach of contract

Having lost that case, Tolan decided to sue his former solicitor John Brady claiming damages for breach of contract and negligence.

Tolan complained that John Brady did not follow up on counsel’s advice in relation to remarks allegedly made by the manager of Balla Mart on 11 August 2012.

Tolan alleges that the manager told farmers who were asking why Tolan was not at the mart that day to bid on cull cows, “not to mention his name to him and that he was not welcome at that mart”.

Tolan claimed that these communications destroyed his business.

Tolan maintained that his former solicitor did not draw his attention to a suggestion that his claim be amended to include a claim for damages for malicious falsehood arising from what the mart manager is alleged to have said to these farmers. He complains that Brady did not follow up on that advice.

However, the High Court ruled that Tolan's claim for malicious falsehood was “doomed to fail”.

“This was because on 11 August 2012 Finbar Tolan was refusing to pay Connacht Gold for cows which he had bought at Balla Mart and at Ballinrobe Mart,” the judgment said.

Tolan had stopped a cheque for €18,700 for cows which were bought on credit at Ballinrobe Mart.

“On the morning of 11 August 2012, he sent a text message to the manager of that mart stating that he had stopped this cheque. His text advised that manager that because Connacht Gold was not prepared allow him to buy cows on credit at Balla Mart, he was refusing to pay any of the money which he owed them for cows,” according to the judgment.

The court also accepted the evidence of John Brady that Tolan specifically instructed him not to attempt to introduce this claim for malicious falsehood into his action against Connacht Gold as he did not want to delay the case being heard.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Alexander Owens said that "two wrongs don't make a right".

"He did not have a right to withhold payment of money due and owing by him to Connacht Gold,” he said.

The judge said that the marts decision not to do business with Tolan was justified and in protection of their interests.