43-year-old Dana Kavanagh from Finglas, Dublin, is attempting to sue Rihanna at her New York address over a matter regarding mental distress caused by a false email sent on July 11, 2013.

Rihanna is disputing the allegations of circulating ‘malicious falsehoods’  and combating them in High Court. Kavanagh claims that the email, which was about her husband, Geoffrey Keating, the singer’s head of security from 2012 to 2013, caused her a great deal of distress and emotional turmoil.

According to the Irish Examiner, Kavanagh is also suing about a phone call Rihanna supposedly made to her sister-in-law about the malicious email.

The falsehoods in the email, Kavanagh also claimed, affected her business with Keating, Geoff Keating Media, in that they had to stop trading. The company is said to have had around 5,000 clients, of which many were female and big-name celebrities.

Wiki Commons/Rihanna at one of her concerts in Singapore

Wiki Commons/Rihanna at one of her concerts in Singapore

Rihanna, while denying the claims altogether, has also had her Irish lawyers ask the High Court to set aside the proceedings on her New York home because they were unlawful. Rihanna’s legal team argue that service of these court papers was invalid due to the fact that they were delivered contrary to rules from the Hague Convention, as well as New York State and federal law in the US.

Read More: Rihanna sued by Irish wife of former head bodyguard

Kavanagh’s support in the case have said that this attempt on the singer’s part is an obstruction of justice since she is trying to prevent her from bringing the proceedings forward. The singer has frequently evaded being served court service papers under the argument by her lawyers that they were unlawful.

Barney Quirke BL, for Kavanagh, stated that summons servers had tried to serve the papers four times and had not been able to serve them on two attempts. Quirke noted that Rihanna had not questioned the jurisdiction of the Irish court for the case, but felt it was simply an attempt on her part to avoid being served the papers altogether.

Read More: Rihanna to be served with Irish defamation papers at her Manhattan apartment