The latest chapter in the bitter row over the collapse of Modus Ventures was played out last week.
The company’s former managing directors, who are being sued for £35m by Anglo Irish Asset Finance, were seeking to force their former backer to pay £250,000 into court as security for costs in the case.
But Brendan Flood and Mike Riddell failed to persuade Judge Mr Justice Teare that there was reason to believe Anglo would be unable to pay their costs if its claim was unsuccessful.
The claim, vigorously defended by Flood and Riddell, is based on personal guarantees given on the Trinity Walk shopping centre project in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Houndshill mall in Blackpool, Lancashire.
Orlando Fraser, counsel for Flood and Riddell, said his client was a casualty of the credit crunch crisis of 2008 and Anglo Irish’s “unique collapse and subsequent nationalisation”.
Without these factors, and the “domino insolvencies” caused by the collapse, his client’s property developments would have continued unhindered. Other developers, he claimed, are now achieving that with the same properties.
The trial is not due to start until next year. Flood and Riddell filed a £251m counter-claim last year, alleging breach of contract and misrepresentation, which the Irish bank denies.
