Windfarm developer claims companies failed to honour agreement on access

GP Joule Ireland Ltd is suing Green Castle Capital Ltd and Cregmore Construction Company Ltd for some €1.8m over what it said are serious misrepresentations about the state of readiness of the project. GP Joule said it has developed about 100 windfarms in recent years across Europe.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Mark Sanfey admitted the case to the fast-track commercial list on the application of Oliver Butler BL, for GP Joule, and with no opposition from Brian Conroy SC, for the defendants.

The court heard there may be an application for security for costs.

The judge adjourned the matter to January.

In an affidavit, Ciaran Donnelly, managing director of GP Joule, said Greencastle owns 100pc of the Clonberne Windfarm Ltd, which holds the rights to the windfarm. Cregmore is the guarantor and owns the intellectual property relevant to the project.

There remained insurmountable impediments to the completion of the transaction

Under an exclusivity agreement, Mr Donnelly said the defendants maintained that they had secured the consent and participation of 27 landowners on whose land the turbines would be built.

GP Joule says it paid €1m to the defendants to negotiate the transaction but it experienced several severe challenges in progressing it, many of which it confronted in the teeth of representations that had been made by the defendants, their lawyers and accountants, Mr Donnelly said.

It transpired, he said, that “many of these were in fact misrepresentations”.

Two years after the agreement was entered, there remained insurmountable impediments to the completion of the transaction, he said.

When GP Joule served notice of the termination of the agreement, it sought the return of €1m paid under the exclusivity agreement along with some €821,000 in what it says were fees it incurred in connection with the proposed transaction.

The claim was rejected by the defendants, who also argued GP Joule requested new option agreements from the landowners, fully aware of the delays it would cause. It had also requested a revised transport route which also required additional time.