Flatley ‘sued accountant after saying he wouldn’t’
Legal dispute over repairs to mansion hears of dancer’s ‘assurances’
MICHAEL Flatley called his former accountant and told him he would drop him from the Riverdance star’s case over his Castlehyde mansion – but has continued to sue him, the Commercial Court has heard.
David Cushion, the second defendant in the €30million action taken by Mr Flatley over allegedly negligent repairs to his Co. Cork home, is described by the dancer in legal papers as his former accountant and insurance broker.
Mr Cushion, a British citizen with an address in London, is alleged to have ‘made representations and assurances’ to Mr Flatley, before the dancer signed a settlement agreement with insurers over the repair work being carried out at his home following a fire.
Mr Flatley, who is battling cancer, claims those works did not deal with toxic ‘carcinogenic’ PVC residue or chloride contamination caused by smoke damage, which he said was present on the walls and furniture of the property.
He has told the court that the ‘defective’ works have left him, his wife and son unable to live in his beloved home, and that it will cost €30million to fix the property. Yesterday, Neil Steen, Mr Cushion’s barrister, told the commercial wing of the High Court that his client was not an insurance broker. He said Mr Flatley himself had assured Mr Cushion that he would not continue to be involved in the legal action.
He said Mr Cushion had also received a number of calls from Mr Flatley’s agent, Des Walshe, ‘in which he has been unequivocally assured’ that Mr Flatley would discontinue proceedings.
The first such call came on December 8 last, and another came on December 13, he said. He said Mr Cushion’s solicitor had written to Mr Flatley’s legal team in late December, saying that if Mr Cushion’s name was withdrawn from the case, they would not seek any legal costs from the dancer.
In another conversation with Mr Walshe on January 5, Mr Cushion was again told the proceedings would be withdrawn, the court heard. However, it was heard that on January 12, Mr Cushion received a letter, saying Mr Flatley intended to prosecute him. The matter first came before the Comhimself. mercial Court on January 15, when Mr Cushion was listed as the second defendant, together with the alleged main contractor, Austin Newport Group, employed by the insurance companies that make up the remaining defendants.
‘On January 15 there was another call from Mr Walshe... and Mr Walshe confirmed again that he would arrange for paperwork to release my client from the proceedings,’ Mr Steen said. ‘Then... on January 18 at 4.18pm, my client avers to the fact that “the plaintiff himself called me directly, and personally reassured me that he was intending to remove me from the proceedings”.’
He added: ‘Mr Cushion thinks that he should not be named in the first place, he thinks the proceedings are misconceived and he has been given repeated assurances that they will be discontinued, including by the plaintiff
That hasn’t been done.’
In the absence of that discontinuation, he said his client was applying on a technicality for the court to agree that the court summons had not been correctly served on him, given that he was a British citizen outside Ireland.
He confirmed that his client had been sued for ‘breach of contract and negligent misstatement’. He said Mr Cushion had sworn that everything he was doing with relation to Castlehyde had been done in his capacity as a partner in a limited liability partnership.
Ronnie Hudson, Mr Flatley’s barrister, said the dancer had given his instructions to his solicitor, Max Mooney, on the telephone from Monaco. Judge Denis McDonald agreed that Mr Cushion had not been correctly served with notice of the proceedings. He said Mr Flatley would have to reserve Mr Cushion with a summons, correctly, if he wished him to be involved in the case, and ordered the dancer to pay Mr Cushion’s legal costs for his application yesterday.
‘Proceedings are misconceived’