THE row between Bula and Tara mines has ended with all claims of Bula directors being thrown out by the High Court, which severely admonished them for taking the case in the first place.
The case, the longest running legal action in the history of the State, centred on claims that the Minister for Energy and Tara Mines Ltd were responsible for the failure to bring the neighbouring Bula lead and zinc mine at Nevinstown, Co Meath, into production.
Mr Justice Lynch dismissed the action brought by Bula Ltd (in receivership) which owns the orebody and businessmen, Mr Michael Wymes, of Bective House, Navan, Co Meath, and Mr Richard Wood of Carrigrohan, Co Cork. They sued the Minister and Tara, which operates a mine beside the Bula mine area.
Submissions on who should pay legal costs were adjourned until next Wednesday. It was suggested that the costs could reach £3 million.
The prime mover behind the litigation, which was heard in the High Court over more than 170 days, Mr Michael Wymes was described by Mr Justice Lynch as a man "utterly convinced of the justice of his cause and that Tara have been intent on destroying him and his colleagues".
The judge said Mr Wymes was not only convinced of these ideas, but was truly obsessed by them to the extent that he had spent the last nine or 10 years of his life pursuing this litigation.
Mr Wymes contended the Minister had obligations to proceed to develop and exploit the Bula mine, but the judge said he had heard little or nothing about the obligations of Bula personnel.
"Having listened to and observed Mr Wymes in the witness box for 146 days and throughout the trial, I have come to the conclusion that he is an unreliable witness," said Mr Justice Lynch.
Speaking of Mr Richard Wood, the other Bula director suing Tara and the Minister, the judge said Mr Wood was completely under the influence of and had been effectively brainwashed by Mr Wymes.
The judge said Mr Wymes had been appointed managing director of Bula shortly after its incorporation and exercised a dominant influence over its affairs.
Mr Justice Lynch spoke of "attitudes of mutual distrust and antagonism" on the part of Tara towards Bula and on the part of Bula (and especially Mr Wymes) towards Tara.
In the course of the sorry saga of Bula, said the judge, Mr Wymes alienated those with whom he should have sought to get on well. He misled them, he strung them along, and he met any resistance with threats of litigation.
Mr Wymes had indulged in and was a master of interminable nit picking legalistic and antagonistic correspondence with all and sundry and especially with the Minister and his Department.
It was very strange that there appeared to have been a complete failure on the part of Bula personnel and especially Mr Wymes to appreciate the cost of time and borrowed money. By 1984, bank interest was running in excess of £5,000 a day.
