High Court reporters
The managing director of a construction company allegedly threw a fellow director's phone out the window of his office shortly after being told the meeting was being recorded, it has been claimed in Commercial Court proceedings.
Cormac Smith, a member and director of MMD Construction (Cork) Ltd, Cork Airport Business Park, claims Tomas O'Donovan grabbed his (Smith's) phone off a desk and threw it out the first floor window despite Mr Smith’s protestations.
He claims Mr O'Donovan then grabbed his shirt and pushed him against the door of the office and yelled threats at him before another director, Kevin O'Leary, intervened to make him let go.
He said Mr O'Donovan then physically assaulted him and threw him out of his office before following him downstairs and picking up his phone outside and smashing it off the ground.
Mr Smith, of Braca House, Kilmore, Kinsale, Co Cork, gave details of the meeting in Mr O'Donovan's office on August 4th, 2022, in an affidavit as part of company oppression proceedings he and his wife have brought.
The case is against Mr O'Donovan, Kevin O'Leary, who is also a director/shareholder, and Mr O'Donovan's wife, Patricia Harrington, who holds a 17 per cent shareholding. The company itself is a notice party.
The claims are denied.
Mr Smith is Mr O'Donovan's brother-in-law and, along with his wife, Mari Smith, says they hold a combined shareholding of one-third in the firm.
However, Mr Smith claims Mr O'Donovan has told him repeatedly that the Smiths only have 16 per cent of the shares and that they are only worth €500,000.
Tensions
In an affidavit seeking entry of the proceedings to the Commercial Court, Mr Smith said he was also employed as a contracts manager by the company and is also a director with a one-third shareholding held in trust for his family of a related plant hire firm, MMD Construction Ltd.
Mr Smith said while there have been occasional tensions in his relationship with Mr O’Donovan, including over the use of company personnel to do up Mr O’Donovan’s home in 2015, it was not until around February 2022 that there was a significant deterioration in that relationship.
A dispute over the estate of Mr O'Donovan and Mrs Smith's father intensified, at which point Mr O'Donovan started to dispute Mr Smith's level of shareholding in the company.
Mr Smith said that in an apparent attempt to exert pressure on Mrs Smith, they were told they could no longer fill their vehicles with diesel from the company yard. Later, another privilege of home heating oil, worth €1,200-€1,500 a month to the Smiths, was stopped, he claimed.
Mr Smith said he also learned that some €3.1 million had been contributed to the pensions of Mr O'Donovan and his wife without his knowledge.
In April last year, Mr Smith said he was threatened with dismissal when he refused to support Mr O’Donovan’s proposal for the sale of the late O’Donovan father’s home in Summerstown, Cork.
Exit strategy
Meetings were held to discuss an “exit strategy” for Mr Smith and when asked how much he wanted, Mr Smith said that as the two related MMD companies were worth €15 million, then he wanted €5 million. Mr O’Donovan offered him €500,000 plus a share in the Summerstown house.
There were further meetings, email exchanges and phone calls culminating in the August 4th meeting in which he said he was physically thrown out of Mr O'Donovan's office.
Mr Smith went on a planned family holiday and when he returned on August 22nd, he was told he had been suspended following a complaint of gross misconduct against him for the August 4th incident and for a previous incident which he said had not merited investigation before then.
He was dismissed in November, over which there are separate proceedings, and he was also notified of EGM proposals to remove him as a director of both companies.
The case was entered into the Commercial Court list on Monday by Mr Justice Denis McDonald on consent between the parties.
The judge expressed concern that the complaints were "historic at this stage" but said given the reluctance of the parties to seek court intervention because of the familial relationships he was prepared to admit the cast to the fast track commercial list.
After being told efforts at mediation were continuing, the judge said there was no doubt that this was something the parties should be undertaking.
He adjourned the matter to October.
