Jackson Way, the company claiming €47 million in compensation from a Dublin local authority following the compulsory acquisition of some of its lands for a motorway, has told the local authority it does not have title documents to the land over which it is claiming compensation.
The company, which is under investigation by the Flood tribunal and the Criminal Assets Bureau, wrote to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council last month saying the documents were not available.
The letter, dated September 5th, was read into the public record at an arbitration hearing in Dún Laoghaire yesterday.
Its author Mr Stephen Miley, solicitor for Jackson Way, identified a number of people with rights of way over the company's lands at Carrickmines in south Dublin.
However, it went on: "We think the forgoing is an exhaustive list (of people with rights of way) but we cannot say so with certainty as we do not have our clients title documents available to us at present."
The letter was presented to the hearing by Mr Dermot Flanagan SC, for the council, to stress there were "uncertainties" regarding title to the lands when the council made an unconditional offer of compensation to Jackson Way on September 13th last.
Some 20 acres of the company's lands have been acquired by the council for the completion of the M50.
The county council does not dispute that Jackson Way is due compensation but it is contesting the amount claimed.
It wants the amount of compensation to be based on the agricultural value of the land rather than the much higher residential value sought by the controversial English-based shelf company.
Jackson Way claims the council's offer of compensation before the hearing, the amount of which has not been disclosed, was not validly constituted for several reasons, including issues to do with the council's understanding of Jackson Way's title to the lands.
Mr Flanagan submitted that the issue of title did not arise until the arbitration hearing was complete.
He also claimed the council was entitled to make an offer to the claimant within days of an arbitration hearing.
Counsel for Jackson Way, Mr Hugh O'Neill SC, had submitted that the delay in making the offer was a further reason to render it invalid.
The arbitrator presiding over the hearing, Mr John Shackleton, will decide next week if the unconditional offer was valid.
The ownership of Jackson Way is unclear but documents in the possession of the Criminal Assets Bureau have suggested Mr James Kennedy, the amusement arcade owner who bought the lands in the 1980s, was the beneficial owner of the company.
A Belfast-born lawyer, Mr John Caldwell, has told the Flood tribunal he holds the lands "to my order" but he denied owning them.