A legal case over an alleged contamination ingredient for horse feed will not be heard by courts in England, the High Court in Dublin has ruled.
The case involves the Kilkenny based equine feed producer, Glanbia Foods Ireland Ltd. and Co. Kildare based ED&F Man Liquid Products Ireland Ltd.
Glanbia Foods Ireland which trades as Glanbia Agribusiness, is suing ED&F Man Liquid Products over an alleged contamination ingredient for horse feed.
Glanbia Foods Ireland is a private company, which has a registered office in Kilkenny and produces, manufactures and supplies equine feed.
ED&F Man Liquid Products is a private company, which has a registered office in Dublin and supplies molasses for use in animal feedstuff.
The case centres around three “purchase contract confirmations” by Glanbia of “2000 metric tonnes of Sumol 72, 200 metric tonnes of Sumol 71, and 200 metric tonnes of Molglo”.
Horse feed
Glanbia Foods Ireland claimed that ED&F Man Liquid Products knew that the molasses products had been purchased for the “purposes of producing feed including equine horse feed for use by equine owners, including those owning and/or training horses trained for equine sports including racing”.
Glanbia Foods Ireland added that it was an “implied term [of the purchase contracts] that the molasses products to be supplied would not contain any substance the presence of which was banned in the European Union (EU) and prohibited for use in animal feed, including equine feed”.
Glanbia Foods Ireland alleges that some of the molasses products were “defective” and “contained the banned substance Zilpaterol hydrochloride which it states is a “performance enhancing agent” which is “prohibited in equine feed including gain equine feed”.
ED&F Man Liquid Products is contesting the allegations.
France Galop
The High Court was informed that it is alleged that in October 2020, the French horse racing authority France Galop announced that “five horses had tested positive for Zilpaterol” and subsequently “a further 13 horses were confirmed as having tested positive by France Galop”.
Glanbia Foods Ireland was then directed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to “detain any feeds” that might contain Zilpaterol and to carry out further tests.
A compliance notice was served by the DAFM on ED&F Man Liquid Products and there was a product recall of the “contaminated molasses”.
Glanbia Foods Ireland has alleged “wrongdoing” by ED&F Man Liquid Products and that it was “guilty of breach of contract, breach of warranty, misrepresentation, negligence, negligent misstatement, and breach of duty (including breach of statutory duty)”.
Glanbia Foods Ireland also claims it has suffered losses of more than €9 million because of the alleged contaminated molasses and “anticipates claims from parties affected by the contaminated feed”.
Commercial division of High Court
The High Court was also informed that proceedings have been initiated in the commercial division of the High Court by a stud farm against Glanbia Foods Ireland for losses which “it alleges have been incurred due to its horses ingesting the contaminated feed”.
“Those proceedings intimate, among a number of claims, a loss of ‘approximately €30 million’ in the breeding value of a particular horse,” the High Court has been informed.
Glanbia Foods Ireland claims that ED&F Man Liquid Products “is obliged to indemnify the plaintiff [Glanbia Foods] for all losses associated with the alleged defect in the products supplied under the purchase contracts”.
ED&F Man Liquid Products told the High Court that it has supplied molasses products to Glanbia Foods Ireland since 2011.
In a pre-trial application, ED&F Man Liquid Products claimed that “the courts of Ireland have no jurisdiction to hear or determine the dispute” because it said the disputed contract with Glanbia Foods Ireland came under Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA) contract terms.
ED&F Man Liquid Products stated to the High Court that under GAFTA terms, this would have dictated that the contract “shall be construed and take effect in accordance with the laws of England”.
Glanbia Foods Ireland contended that the contract between Glanbia and ED&F was “subject to Glanbia’s standard terms and conditions”.
Justice Mark Sanfey ruled that the GAFTA terms were “not incorporated in the contract” between Glanbia Foods Ireland and ED&F Man Liquid Products, and that the case should not be referred to English courts.
The judge also ruled that an application to refer the two parties to arbitration must “be refused”.