Co Wexford haulage firm, Nolan Transport, must pay costs of High Court action

Members of Wexford family haulage firm, Nolan Transport, must pay the costs of a High Court action in which they claimed nearly €7m in pension funds were misappropriated.

However, Mr Justice Denis McDonald put a stay on the costs order pending an appeal which the Nolans are bringing in relation to aspects of his decision earlier this month in which he dismissed most of their case. Part of the case, in which the Nolans sued their former solicitor Ciaran Desmond, was settled days into the trial in 2022.

The case was back before the judge on Wednesday to deal with the making of formal orders and the question of who pays the costs of the case.

One of the judge’s main findings was that certain members of the Nolan family promoted an unsubstantiated story about the instability of all Irish banks in order to “mask their true intention” to try to use family pension funds to settle personal debts with the banks.

The trial heard that Nolan family members, who run one of the largest trucking companies in Europe with 900 employees, were members of a pension trust set up to benefit 13 of them. The trucking business was set up by their father James and his wife more than 50 years ago.

It was claimed that due to concerns about the state of Irish banks, It was agreed to move part of the pension funds out of Ireland to a deposit account in Switzerland held by their solicitor, Mr Desmond.

Central to the case was an allegation that the Nolans’ money was used as security for a US$100 million investment loan, which was designed to make a secret profit for Mr. Desmond and/or the pension advisor John Millett.

It was claimed that as this investment was not capital protected, the bulk of the Nolans’ funds, which were used as security, were lost. The claims were denied.

Another aspect of the action was against three men who claim they are the beneficial owners of the former Nemo Rangers development land in Cork which the Nolans say was bought with €2.8m of their pension funds without their knowledge.

The three men are Paul Kenny, his son Dillon Kenny and Paul’s nephew Darren Kenny, who say they are owners through an Isle of Man company called Dildar which owns the Nemo lands. The Kennys also denied the claims and counterclaimed against the Nolans.

After hearing arguments on Wednesday in relation to final orders, the judge confirmed orders he had suggested in his judgment.

He said the Nolans were entitled to argue in an appeal that certain findings he made, in relation to the admissibility of certain documents during the trial, were wrong but he still had to make those orders.

He dismissed all claims against the Kenny defendants and the Dildar company as well as the counterclaim against the Nolans.

He said while the Nolans may wish to seek a stay on the discharging of an injunction over dealing in the Nemo lands, he believed the discharge order should be immediate. He would however hear arguments on the stay issue in February.

In relation to a claim from the Kennys seeking damages against the Nolans, he said pleadings could be issued, but no further steps should be taken in the case pending any appeal, in order to keep down costs.

Mr Millett and his companies who were also defendants were entitled to their costs as were the Kennys, he said.

The Nolans were entitled to their costs in relation to a finding the judge made that Mr Millett had made unauthorised disclosure of Nolan data and fined him a total of €3.000.

He stayed all costs orders pending appeal.

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