‘Ulterior motive in withholding lease assignment’

A company belonging to businessman Louis Fitzgerald, which is landlord of the Café en Seine premises in Dublin, acted for an ulterior motive when withholding consent for a receiver’s proposed assignment of the lease to clear the way for a €5m sale, the Commercial Court ruled.

Mr Justice Robert Haughton rejected Mr Fitzgerald’s evidence concerning why his company, Chupn Ltd, withheld consent in September 2014 for assignment of the lease held by the bar’s operating company, Perfect Pies Ltd, so as to clear the way for a planned sale of the Dawson St premises by October 2014 to a subsidiary of Ardan Advisory Ltd.

The judge upheld claims by Pearse Farrell, receiver to Perfect Pies, that the refusal was unreasonable and aimed at getting possession of the premises.