The commercial division of the High Court has reserved judgment on an application to restrict the owner of Business & Finance magazine, Ian Hyland, and three former directors of the publishing company that used to produce the title.
The proceedings arise from Mr Hyland's acquisition in 2002 of the publishing company, Belanos Publications, and its subsequent voluntary liquidation with a Revenue liability of some €675,000. Mr Hyland, who also publishes Magill magazine, transferred the Business & Finance title after the liquidation to another company, which continues to publish it.
Mr Justice Seán O'Leary refused an application to restrict three other former directors.
Brian Kennedy for the liquidator, Pearse Farrell, said the three - former Fianna Fáil minister and academic economist Dr Martin O'Donoghue; former managing editor John Magee and former editor Vincent Wall - had acted "honestly and responsibly".
Their cases went to court because the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement refused to grant the liquidator relief from his obligation to seek restriction orders against them in light of the liquidation.
The judge will rule in the case of Mr Hyland and those of former directors William Ambrose, Michael Norris and his daughter Lisa Cosgrave before the end of the legal term.
Mr Kennedy told the court that aspects of the case were disputed by Mr Hyland, who was on one side, and by Ms Cosgrave, Mr Amrose, Mr Norris and Mr O'Donoghue, on the other.
Mr Hyland "stepped aside" as a director of the publishing company Baal Securities, then owner of the magazine, in mid-2001 after he expressed an interest in buying the title. The company had been in need of fresh investment but had been in profit prior to a serious financial deterioration in 2001 due to the dotcom collapse, the foot-and-mouth crisis and the 9/11 attack on the US.
In spite of the company's precarious financial situation, Mr Hyland went ahead with the acquisition on January 15th, 2002, a Monday, even though his financial backers pulled out of the deal immediately before the transaction. Mr Hyland says he learned only the previous Friday that the company had defaulted in the previous November on a monthly instalment plan agreed that September with the Revenue.
Lyndon MacCann SC for Mr Hyland said he had acted honestly and responsibly at all times. He immediately contacted Revenue on completion of the deal and introduced a rationalisation plan. But the company went into liquidation in March 2002.
John Hennessy for Ms Cosgrave, Mr Norris and Mr Ambrose said the company's difficulties arose from external factors and not mismanagement. He defended a payment to them and Mr Magee of a total of £88,000 as part of their contractual entitlements for pension payment forgone and loans.
Mr Kennedy said there may have been "fraudulent preference" in these payments as they were made when the company was in grave financial difficulty and had other large creditors, but the judge said the liquidator should have pursued them for the money if that was so.
