€40m damages claims in dioxin scare put on hold
DAMAGES claims totalling €40m over the pork dioxin scare which forced the recall of Irish pig products from the shelves were put on hold yesterday.
High Court Judge Mary Laffoy made the decision when she handed down a ruling on a proposed compensation scheme for pig and cattle breeders whose animals had to be destroyed.
The contamination last year forced the recall of products from shops and breeders were badly hit as a result.
Millstream Recycling Ltd, which is being sued in separate proceedings for €32m by various parties for supplying contaminated animal feed, has claimed the feed was contaminated by 40-year-old fuel allegedly supplied by a businessman, Gerard Tierney.
The court had been asked by Millstream Recycling Ltd for an order directing a meeting of "contamination creditors". These creditors have made compensation claims against Millstream totalling €40m.
Judge Laffoy directed that the meeting should take place next July when a scheme of arrangement is in place, based mainly on an FBD insurance policy limited to €6.5m.
Contaminated
She said Millstream Recycling Ltd had promised to add to this fund any money arising out of a €36m action it had taken against Gerard Tierney, of the Paddocks, Selandia, Newtownpark Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, and Newtown Lodge Ltd which, Millstream alleges, supplied it with contaminated oil. The outcome of the action was at this stage uncertain.
The judge made it clear she was not approving of the terms of the scheme. But she was directing that the proposed meeting of contamination creditors be held and that the scheme be put to them.
She said there would be no point in such a meeting unless all existing litigation was stayed.
Millstream, based in Bunclody, Co Wexford, had asked the court for directions regarding the scheme but Judge Laffoy said she regarded such directions as premature at this stage.
She said the scheme envisaged the appointment of expert John McGee, of OSG Outsource Services Group Ltd. OSG investigates oil pollution and contamination. Ronan Dolan SC is to be appointed as legal assistant in order to assess claims made by the contamination creditors.
The decision of Mr McGee would be binding on all contamination creditors for the purpose of valuing claims.Judge Laffoy said the court had no jurisdiction at this juncture to embark on a general assessment as to whether the scheme was fair and equitable and it would be entirely inappropriate to express a view on it.
- Ray Managh
Irish Independent
