Hotelier 'hadn't a leg to stand on' over unpaid bill
COUNTRY CLUB OWNER TOLD TO PAY OVER ¤2,200 OWED TO SLIGO COMPANY
Killerig Golf and Country Club.
Tuesday February 09 2010
A DISPUTE over an unpaid bill led a prominent Carlow hotelier to appear in last week's sitting of the local District Court and prompted Judge William Harnett to tell him that his case was 'appalling nonsense'.
Paul Brown, of the Killerig Golf and Country Club and of Brown Corporate Finance Ltd, was sued by Nutrisolv Ireland Ltd, Riverstown, County Sligo, after the company carried out works in the resort last year.
Acting for Nutrisolv Ltd, solicitor Lavelle Coleman, told Judge Harnett that the company visited the golf club twice in January last year and a third time in February to investigate a problem with the sewerage system. She said that tests were carried out and that a report was written up but that a row had erupted over payment for the first visit.
Mark McConnell, Director of Nutrisolv, told the court that an exact fee hadn't been agreed on the onset because it was an investigation and they didn't know what it would entail.
He continued that he didn't receive any queries about invoices sent to Brown Corporate Finance Ltd until he noticed in June that they weren't paid. Mr. McConnell continued that when he spoke to Mr. Paul Brown in July, Mr. Brown told him that he wouldn't pay until the project was complete.
'This is appalling nonsense,' Judge Harnett told the defendants, noting that they couldn't expect Nutrisolv to wait for payments until the project was finished.
When Mr. Fergal Brown pointed out that Mr. Paul Brown had to find leaks in the system himself, Judge Harnett told him that 'it had nothing to do with Nutrisolv' because they were 'commissioned to write a report.'
Mr. Paul Brown, in his evidence, said that he'd wanted Nutrisolv to oversee all the works involved and that he was disappointed that he had to take over the project himself.
However, Judge Harnett said that Mr. McConnell had agreed to write up a report and that Brown Corporate Finance Ltd 'hadn't a leg to stand on.'
He ordered them to pay Nutrisolv the ¤2,269.50 that was outstanding.
