A business dispute between Conor McGregor and his ex-sparring partner will likely not be heard by the High Court until next year due to a witness’s poor health.
Artem Lobov’s action claims he was involved in the creation of and working on the initial setting up Mr McGregor’s Proper No. Twelve Irish whiskey brand.
The trial hearing in the case had been set for December. However, Mr Justice Brian Cregan on Monday vacated the hearing date, after being told by lawyers for Mr McGregor that, due to illness, there was no prospect of one of its witnesses being available to give evidence then.
Proper No. Twelve was reportedly sold for $600 million to Proximo Spirits in 2021. Mr McGregor was reported to have received US$130 million from the sale.
RM Block
Proximo cut ties with Mr McGregor and the brand following a separate High Court jury civil action which found he should pay almost €250,000 for raping a woman, Nikita Hand, in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.
An appeal by Mr McGregor was rejected and he has since applied to the Supreme Court for a further appeal.
Mr Lobov originally claimed he made an oral agreement about the whiskey brand in a gym in September 2017. Mr McGregor said he was in Ibiza that September and could not have been present on that date.
However, as Mr Lobov was preparing for the hearing of his case, he found an old mobile phone last March which clarified that the meeting at which the agreement was made was October 9th, 2017, not in September.
As a result a hearing date last May had to be vacated after Mr McGregor’s side said it had completely changed the claim they had to meet and they needed time to deal with it.
A formal application was made to allow Mr Lobov amend his pleadings, and was opposed by the McGregor side, but granted by the court and a new date for hearing eventually set for December.
Last week, Mr McGregor’s senior counsel Mark Lynam told the High Court there was a difficulty with one of their witnesses. Due to the witness’s serious health difficulties, he said they were seeking an adjournment of the December hearing date.
The case was adjourned last week to allow for Mr McGregor’s side to produce medical evidence.
On Monday, Mr Lynam told Mr Justice Brian Cregan it had not been possible to source a consultant’s report on the witness’s health.
Mr Lynam said his side had provided correspondence to Mr Lobov’s lawyers outlining information about the witness’s health – including that he was diagnosed with an illness in July, has been receiving treatment for the condition, and is currently quite unwell. These letters were provided to the court.
Mr Lynam asked the court to formally vacate a December 9th hearing date for this case, stating that it would not be possible for the witness to give evidence then.
Andrew Walker SC, for Mr Lobov, submitted that with the witness in hospital, the case shouldn’t be adjourned “awaiting developments”, and said his side wanted some certainty on when he may be in a position to give evidence.
Mr Justice Cregan said he would vacate the hearing date previously set in the case, but directed that Mr Lobov’s side be provided with a medical certificate relating to the witness within two weeks.
The judge said that if the certificate does not materialise, he would set a new hearing date “in early course”.
He said that assuming the correspondence handed to the court at today’s hearing was true, the rescheduled hearing will likely be in March or April next year.
The matter was adjourned to the end of the month.
