An Irish entrepreneur based in the Philippines, Gerard Lane, was reportedly denied access to his ‘owner’s suite’ at the four-star Tinakilly House Hotel in Wicklow due to a wedding event. According to Commercial Court documents, this event was granted full use of the hotel. Mr. Lane claims that he wasn’t informed of this beforehand, and alleged the exchange on the incident was excessively combative. This event, he reports, triggered the collapse of his partnership with Denis Connolly, a co-owner of the property who resides there.
The pair formed a partnership after meeting through a mutual friend in 2013. Together, they purchased both Tinakilly House and a hotel located in Cadiz, Spain. It is alleged that Mr. Connolly kept an owner’s suite in each for his personal use. Currently, Mr. Lane demands various court rulings, including the termination of the business partnership.
On Monday, with the agreement of Mr Justice Michael Twomey, the proceedings will move into the fast-track commercial list at the proposal of Declan McGrath SC, representing Mr. Lane. Although Mr. Connolly did not appear, Mr. Justice Twomey noted receipt of off-the-record communications from him, indicating consent for the case to join the Commercial Court.
In a written statement, Mr. Lane reported that Tinakilly was bought for €1.05 million in 2013 by the partnership from insolvency administrators, with ownership divided between Mr. Connolly (51%) and himself (49%). In 2017, they acquired the Finca Monasterio boutique hotel in Cadiz for €2.5 million, with ownership this time in Mr. Lane’s favour. The total value of both hotels, which are popular wedding venues, exceeds €12 million. Despite hefty investments in these properties, Mr. Lane asserts he has received no profit from this partnership.
Upon landing in Tinakilly in July 2022, a dispute occurred and he felt it was most beneficial to allow time in order to dissipate the tension. However, by May 2023 he was notified that the defendant filed an application for building permission for Tinakilly with a firm named Greenhill Development (BC) Ltd, citing them as the hotel’s legal proprietor. This gave him a considerable amount of worry, with numerous electronic correspondences from Mr Lane to Mr Connolly ensuing, yet Mr Connolly only responded to the disagreement from the previous July and didn’t address fears about their joint venture.
In his email, Mr Connolly accused Mr Lane of having misguided opinions about the hotel being specifically used for wedding events and of treatment of him as well as his team that was both revolting and bullying in nature.
By November of the same year, Mr Lane admitted to journeying to Ireland and meeting with Tinakilly’s auditor, who agreed to step in as a negotiator. The said auditor then relayed that Mr Connolly was more inclined towards a peaceful resolution of their deadlock. The auditor also proposed processes of buying out the interest owned by the opposing party in both hotel enterprises.
Mr Lane’s legal representatives engaged Mr Connolly in correspondence and demanded financial details regarding the said hotels. Mr Lane stated that this information was not willingly provided. On May 31st, Mr Lane’s lawyers formally sent a dissolution notice of their partnership, which led to Mr Connolly refuting the partnership’s existence.
Within Mr Lane’s request for access to the Commercial Court, his legal representative also mentioned that they were weighing up whether to file an application for an injunction seeking the withheld financial facts. Mr Justice Twomey was urging the parties to contemplate mediating at this initial phase.