An oral contract is not worth the paper it is written on, the film mogul Samuel Goldwyn once observed.
The oral contract that ended in the alleged sale of the Barne Estate in Co Tipperary to the billionaire businessman John Magnier has generated a veritable mountain of paperwork.
Magnier and family are suing Barne Estate owner Richard Thomson-Moore and others over the purported sale on the evening of August 22nd, 2023 of the 751-acre estate in Co Tipperary.
There were boxes piled up on the seats of a crowded Court 11 and stacks of blue-grey boxes bearing the name of Magnier’s solicitors Arthur Cox for which there was no room in the court.
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After lunch Mr Justice Max Barrett acknowledged that he is going to need a bigger courtroom and ordered that the boxes be removed to let people sit down.
Magnier’s counsel Paul Gallagher led the court patiently through page after page of written evidence – more than 500 pages in total.
Among the WhatsApp messages he read was one from Alex Thomson-Moore, the sister of Richard Thomson-Moore, who wrote: “One of us needs to be writing a diary and turning this into a Sunday night TV thriller.” Tolstoy’s War and Peace, more like.
Counsel for the Barne Estate Martin Heyden interjected to say there had been an “extraordinarily disproportionate” level of demand for documents in the case from Magnier’s side and the process was costing a “staggering amount of money”.
The star witness, John Magnier, gave evidence just after 3pm. “This is my first day here ever,” he added with a pause when asked how often he had ended up in court over a deal like this.
He has amassed a huge fortune through his Coolmore bloodstock operation and much of Co Tipperary. He crossed swords with Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and won.
Yet, aside from the odd horse racing interview about his Coolmore prodigies, he rarely, if ever, speaks in public about his dealings. He has made his fortune while remaining a mystery.
He spoke quietly and deliberately, aside from once when he got irritated and handed Heyden a copy of his statement only to demand it back again later.
The Barne Estate was adjoining two farms that he owned and he was keen to purchase it. He went to visit it on July 7th, 2023 and noticed something odd.
The Thomson-Moores were growing potatoes, which is “hard on land”. When he inquired he was told that the Thomson-Moores were always “strapped for cash” and had found a cash customer for the potatoes.
“That struck a chord with me,” he said. On the evening of August 22nd, Thomson-Moore, his wife, and auctioneer John Stokes arrived to the Coolmore House.
Stokes demanded €18 million for the Barne Estate. “That led me to believe that they were not serious about doing a deal. I was taken aback by it,” said Magnier.
“Between the jigs and reels and going back and forth,” he added, they finally settled on a figure of €15 million.
Stokes and the Thomson-Moores adjourned to another room and then came back. “John [Stokes] put out his hand, and said, ‘John, we have a deal.’”
It wasn’t subject to anything, they all shook hands, everybody was happy and he thought he had a deal, Magnier remembered.
He later gave the Thomson-Moores €50,000 in cash for three reasons: firstly, for allowing him to till the farm; secondly, because they were under financial pressure; and thirdly, because they were resisting a counter-offer from US-based businessman Maurice Regan.
Magnier knew when the money was returned on September 11th, 2023 that the deal was in trouble.
He wanted to resolve the issue by peaceful means and upped his offer to more than €16 million and €500,000 in a trust for the Thomson-Moores’ disabled son. It was rejected. “We were left with no choice but to launch proceedings,” he said.
He spoke with Stokes on October 6th. “I asked him what was going on. ‘John, there is one word for it – greed.’”
