Billionaire businessman John Magnier gave evidence in a dispute over land in Co Tipperary that was “entirely false”, a High Court judge has said.
“Lying … that is what happened here,” Mr Justice Max Barrett said on Friday when making an exceptional legal costs order against the businessman.
Mr Magnier (77) is a former senator who left school in his teens and went on to develop what is considered to be one of the world’s leading bloodstock operations based at Coolmore stud farm in, Co Tipperary.
At one stage he was co-owner of a significant stake in Manchester United FC along with Limerick billionaire JP McManus.
The two men sold their stake to the Glazer family in 2005 against the backdrop of a falling out with club manager Alex Ferguson over a stallion, the Rock of Gibraltar.
On Friday Mr Justice Max Barrett made an exceptional costs order against Mr Magnier in a case where, in September, he found against the businessman and two of his children, John Paul Magnier and Katherine Wachman, and in favour of the owners of the 303-hectare Barne Estate in Co Tipperary.
Mr Magnier claimed an oral agreement to buy the estate for €15 million, reached during a 2023 kitchen-table meeting at Coolmore House with the estate’s owners, was binding.
However, Mr Justice Barrett disagreed in his ruling in September and said he was satisfied Mr Magnier knew any deal was subject to trustee approval.
Mr Magnier notified the defendants on Thursday he is going to appeal the September judgment.
The order made on Friday by Mr Justice Barrett will add about 30 per cent to the legal costs awarded to the defendants, according to legal sources.
Total legal costs from the case, which lasted 19 days, are estimated to be about €4 million, with additional discovery costs of €2 million.
The judge said the case did not involve competing truths. It was brought on the basis of a story that was shown to be “demonstrably untrue” after which “the plaintiffs simply changed their story”.
“No good reason has ever been offered for this,” the judge said. Evidence that was “entirely false” was tendered when it “cannot but have been known to be untrue”.
There was a verb for reshaping a story to suit objectively demonstrated facts, the judge said.
“Lying, and that is what happened here. That cannot go unmarked by the court,” he said.
He was making no criticism of the lawyers involved in the case, he said.
Earlier Paul Gallagher SC, for Mr Magnier, rejected an accusation his client was engaged in “warfare” or “bulldozer law” in relation to the dispute.
Martin Hayden SC, for Mr Thomson-Moore, the Barne Estate and others, said Mr Magnier initiated the proceedings knowing the “devastating consequences” they would have on the defendants, he said.
During the trial Anna Thomson-Moore said she and her husband wanted to sell the estate so they could move to Australia where they could get better support for their young son, Teddy, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and is in need of 24-hour care.
Mr Hayden said Mr Magnier knew this was behind the family’s decision to sell the estate.
The family has said the estate, which is owned by a trust, cannot be sold because of the legal proceedings.
A €22.5 million offer for the estate from New York-based millionaire Maurice Regan was accepted by the Thomson-Moores but has not been concluded.
Although the court found against his client, Mr Gallagher said, it was clear Mr Magnier was a “man of honour” who “did deals and abided by them”.
