The office that can’t be found ...the new twist in Michael Flatley case

A barrister for Mr Flatley said Switzer Consulting was required to give a valid address for official company records, as a matter of company law.

But neither a solicitor for the dancer, who drove to the Newry industrial estate listed in the provided address, nor the clerk of the court could find the units given as the headquarters of Switzer.

Mr Flatley is attempting to take back control of Switzer, to end a legal row which began in January, as the multimillion-euro 30th anniversary tour continues on its way across Europe.

He has told the court he owns 100% of the shares in the company.

However, Bruce MacInnes, Switzer’s former chairman and director, maintains he has a 10% shareholding – which Mr Flatley claims he obtained only in recent weeks from a trustee who had already been removed from her position by the court.

Mr Flatley has sued Mr MacInnes, claiming damages for an alleged conspiracy to cause him loss.

David Dunlop, Mr Flatley’s barrister, said his side’s inability to find an office for Switzer was causing problems when it came to serving legal documents.

He explained: “There’s a Greenbank industrial estate, but there’s no unit which one can identify has any connection to Switzer. There’s no post box, there’s no literature, there’s nothing.”

Mr Dunlop said that “quite outrageously” Mr MacInnes was claiming the correct process had not been followed, involving notice being given to the company, to allow Mr Flatley to appoint new directors to Switzer.

“Mr MacInnes threw in the bombshell that ‘I don’t accept that was valid service because it wasn’t served on the registered office’,” he said.

“That is obviously a great ploy because you can’t serve a registered office that no one can find.”

Mr Dunlop said: “The issue of the registered office is now being used [by Mr MacInnes] to preclude any new directors being appointed to the company.”

Mr Dunlop said Mr Flatley, with an address at Avenue Princess Grace, Monaco, was therefore keen to proceed with a court application that would allow him to call a general meeting of the company’s registered shareholders, to appoint new directors.

Mr MacInnes, of St Sampson, Guernsey, was the only person claiming to be a director of Switzer, he said, and was trying to make Mr Flatley “jump to his tune”.

Mr. Dunlop said Mr. MacInnes was trying to overturn an injunction agreed to by Switzer not to interfere with the Lord Of The Dance tour.

Mr. MacInnes has claimed in a sworn statement before the court that he had invested “substantial sums” in Switzer, which gave him rights to the tour’s intellectual property, and that he is owed €700,000 from the company.

“Switzer has been and remains unable to perform its contractual obligations as a direct result of the injunction,” he said.

Judge Ian Huddlestone said he would hear the application regarding the shareholders’ meeting next week.

On May 13, he will hear both sides debate whether the injunction should remain in place regarding Switzer’s ban from the tour.

* This article was originally published on BusinessPlus.ie.