DEREK RICHARDSON, IRISH businessman and owner of English rugby team Wasps, is to ask the High Court to throw out injunction proceedings brought against him by TV doctor Nina Byrnes.
Barrister William Hamilton, counsel for Richardson, told Justice Deirdre Murphy today that Byrnes had failed to make full and frank disclosure to the court last week when she obtained the injunction.
The High Court order restrains Richardson and two other defendants, Pearl Health Limited and its director David Johnson, of Killiney Hill Upper, Killiney, from interfering with her operation of a medical clinic at a South Dublin shopping centre.
Dr Byrnes earlier told the court in a sworn statement that following negotiations in 2015 she established a new GP clinic on the first floor of Glenageary Shopping Centre. She had done so after Pearl Health had stated its plan was to bring together dentists, physiotherapists and other related professionals so as to create a medical centre.
She said that at the time Pearl’s director David Johnson had advised her that Richardson was his business partner. While she had never met Richardson she said he was the owner of the first floor premises of the shopping centre.
She claimed it was agreed she would be a lessee of the property where she would have exclusive rights to provide GP services under the Generation Health brand. She had told the court that in recent months there had been incidents that amounted to an unlawful interference with her business.
Following legal correspondence she had been told earlier this month that her agreement had been terminated, that the locks would be changed and her belongings removed. When she had arrived for work on Friday, 12 August, there had been an attempt to lock her out of the premises.
Byrnes claimed the actions of the defendants would cause irreparable damage to her medical and business reputation as well as her standing in the community.
‘Oppressive and vexatious’
Hamilton described the proceedings against Richardson as “oppressive and vexatious” and told the judge he would be applying to have the injunction against his client discharged when the case comes before the High Court again next week.
He told Judge Murphy that essentially the dispute was one between Byrnes and Pearl Health and not Richardson, who was not involved in the management of the medical centre. Byrnes claimed he owns the property in which her clinic is situated.
Last week, the High Court temporarily restored possession of the clinic to Byrnes.
Byrnes, who has presented the TV shows Health of the Nation for RTÉ and Doctor in the House for TV3, claimed the actions of the defendants meant she was not in a position to attend to her patients at the clinic.
Hamilton told the court that Richardson was not involved in the management of the medical centre and that Byrnes had failed to present “full and frank disclosure” of all matters required in obtaining a court injunction.
Following inter-party talks today it was agreed to adjourn all matters until next Monday.
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