A wind farm developer claims that two companies have failed to honour an agreement to facilitate access to privately-owned land in Co Galway where an 11-turbine facility is planned.
GP Joule Ireland Ltd is suing Green Castle Capital Ltd and Cregmore Construction Company Ltd for some €1.8 million in Commercial Court proceedings over what it says are serious misrepresentations about the state of readiness of the project. GP Joule says it has
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey on Monday admitted the case to the fast track commercial list on the application of Oliver Butler, for GP Joule, and with no opposition from Brian Conroy SC, for the defendants. The court heard there may be an application for security for costs. The judge adjourned the matter to January.
In an affidavit, Ciaran Donnelly, managing director of GP Joule, said Greencastle owns 100 per cent of the Clonberne Wind Farm Ltd, which holds the rights to the wind farm. Cregmore is the guarantor and owns the intellectual property relevant to the project.
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Under an exclusivity agreement, Mr Donnelly said the defendants maintained that they had secured the consent and participation of 27 landowners on whose land the turbines would be built.
GP Joule says it paid €1 million to the defendants to negotiate the transaction but it experienced several severe challenges in progressing it, many of which it confronted in the teeth of representations that had been made by the defendants, their lawyers and accountants, Mr Donnelly said.
It transpired, he said, that “many of these were in fact misrepresentations”.
Two years after the agreement was entered, there remained insurmountable impediments to the completion of the transaction, he said.
When GP Joule served notice of the termination of the agreement, it sought the return of €1 million paid under the exclusivity agreement along with some €821,000 in what it says were fees it incurred in connection with the proposed transaction.
The claim was rejected by the defendants which also argued GP Joule requested new option agreements from the landowners, fully aware of the delays it would cause. It had also requested a revised transport route which also required additional time.
