A contentious High Court civil case involving three co-founders of tech giant Web Summit is nearing resolution, with terms of a settlement expected to be laid before the court on Thursday.
The negotiations lasted several hours, and the court was scheduled to hear testimony from former Web Summit CEO Dare Hickey on Wednesday.
However, for the second day in a row, the trial was suspended as lawyers and parties negotiated in the corridors outside Court 29 in the Four Courts building.
Around 12:30 p.m., attorney Michael Kush, representing another former director, David Kelly, told Judge Michael Twomey that negotiations had not yet yielded results, but that time had not been wasted in the case.
Judge Tuomi then adjourned the hearing until 2:00 p.m.
At about 2:05 p.m., Mr. Cosgrave's lawyers invited him to leave the courthouse, and within five minutes all three lawyers were standing before Judge Twomey.
Mr. Kush expressed delight at the positive developments in the negotiations and noted that what was discussed between all three parties would be documented overnight and presented to the court the following day.
Mr. Kush thanked the judge for the time to discuss the settlement. Judge Twomey then adjourned the case for a final ruling until 11 a.m. Thursday.
Web Summit majority shareholder Paddy Cosgrave has filed a lawsuit against Mr Kelly, who owns 12 per cent of the company, for alleged breaches of fiduciary duties as a director.
Mr Cosgrave, in turn, found himself a defendant in a lawsuit by Mr Kelly and Mr Hickey, who owns seven percent of Web Summit, for alleged shareholder oppression and breach of a profit-sharing agreement.
At a High Court hearing last week, Mr Justice Twomey urged the parties to resolve their differences rather than incur the “real and human” costs of spending months in litigation.
Judge Twomey quoted the French philosopher Voltaire, who said: “I have never been ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I won it.”
He urged the three parties not to focus on the “rights and wrongs” of their business history, but to focus on its resolution.
He stressed that mediation was “a thousand times preferable to litigation” and warned that the three months allotted for the case could result in a decision being made in the winter, which might not suit either side.
He said that could lead to appeals and possibly further appeals to the Supreme Court, which could take up to three years to resolve.
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Judge Tuomi noted that the trial
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
