A COUPLE who are disputing a court claim by a construction company that it is not obliged to pay them €7.3 million for lands at Tralee are not proceeding with a separate case against former tánaiste Dick Spring, his solicitor brother Donal Spring and a Co Kerry developer, relating to an agreement for sale of the same lands.
William and Anna Kennedy claim they are entitled to €7.3 million for the lands at Caherwesheen, Tralee, Co Kerry, in accordance with a market valuation of the lands of November 2007, but that claim is disputed by O'Flynn Construction Co which, in proceedings to be heard in December, claims the valuation is not binding and that it is entitled to buy the lands at a lower price.
The Kennedys had initiated separate proceedings against the Spring brothers and Mr McKenna, a building contractor, Abbeydorney, Tralee, arising from an option agreement concluded between the sides on September 16th, 2005.
They had claimed it was agreed that the defendants would have the option up to March 31st, 2007, to purchase the lands. They also claimed the option agreement had provided for the lands to be sold at an agreed market value.
If there was no agreement on the market value, then it would be set by auctioneers TJ Stuart, Castleisland, Co Kerry, whose decision would be binding on the parties, it was claimed.
The couple say their solicitors wrote to the defendants last February calling on them to complete the sale but solicitors for the defendants had replied that the Kennedys were aware that the option agreement had been assigned a long time previously to O'Flynn Construction.
The Kennedys had initiated proceedings against the Spring brothers and Mr McKenna in which they sought an order requiring the defendants to purchase the lands for €7.3 million.
When the motion was called, Bernard Dunleavy, for the Kennedys, said it could be struck out.
