A contract for the proposed sale in 1996 of around 12 acres of south Dublin lands - then the property of the Hon Garech Browne, a member of the Guinness brewing family - was illegal because it involved a £350,000 payment to an Isle of Man investment company as part of the deal, the High Court was told yesterday.
Retired solicitor Mr William J. McGuire (67), former partner with solicitors McKeever Rowan, said the original contract for the lands at Woodtown Manor, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, involved payment of the £350,000 as a finder's fee.
The company was named as Snipe Investments and the land was the property of Mr Browne. At the time McKeever Rowan acted for Mr Browne, of Luggala, Roundwood, Co Wicklow, in the proposed sale, but the transaction became enmeshed in legal difficulties and, in 1998, Mr Browne decided to change solicitors.
The lands were initially to be sold to property development company Dunloe House, but, when this deal did not materialise, they were to be disposed of, in trust, to solicitors Patrick F. O'Reilly of South Great George's Street, Dublin.
Mr Browne had asked the High Court to direct that Mr McGuire appear and answer questions from Mr Browne's lawyers, and Ms Justice Carroll made that direction on Wednesday. Last July Mr Browne had applied for a court order to compel McKeever Rowan to give him the original files in respect of the sale.
Yesterday, Mr McGuire told Mr Brian O'Moore SC, for Mr Browne, that the £350,000 was not given to McKeever Rowan. His company did not handle the money. His nephew, Mr Gavin McGuire, would simply be "the post box", as it were, for the bank draft. The money was to be described as a "finding fee".
Mr McGuire said he was concerned about the payment of this money in terms of any subsequent litigation. This was the first time in his experience that his firm had been sued. He said Mr Browne had paid £19,000 to his firm in respect of the Dunloe House transaction but most was in respect of mitigation of his taxes in regard to capital gains.
After hearing Mr McGuire, Ms Justice Carroll said she found him to be a truthful witness, even if he contradicted himself at times. She ordered that he and Mr Robert Browne, a solicitor in McKeever Rowan, make one last thorough search of the company's offices for all documents relating to the plaintiff as a client, and to let the plaintiff's solicitor know the outcome by letter.