A GROUP of property developers have been ordered by the Commercial Court to honour a contract under which they agreed to pay €6.5 million to buy lands but were then unable to raise the necessary funds.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said one had only to look at what goes on in the Commercial Court to realise there are changing economic circumstances from the days of the "so-called Celtic Tiger" when people entered into contracts when they did not have the money to complete the sale. The judge made an order requiring specific performance of the contract and also awarded daily interest on the outstanding sum of €6,175,000.
The order - made against businessmen Paul Gilmartin, Paul Feeney, Gerry Kilcoyne and Jarlath Sweeney, trading as Lauren Properties, River Oaks Centre, Claregalway, Galway - requires them to complete the purchase of 18.2 acres of development lands at Clooneybeirne and Roxborough, Roscommon, within 21 days.
The men had signed a contract to buy the lands from Stephen Reilly, a businessman, and Elizabeth Reilly, a widow, both of Creevy, Roscommon.
Rossa Fanning, for the defendants, said his clients now accepted they had to complete the contract.