A former employee at Coolmore Stud, William Jones of Dominic’s Court, Cashel, Co Tipperary has been refused injunctions in the High Court today, preventing the stud’s lawyers writing to booksellers and distributors alleging that his book, The Black Horse Inside Coolmore, contains defamatory material.

Jones, who worked at the stud from 2006 until January 2015, denies any defamation.

The case before Ms Justice Caroline Costello, contained four injunctions which sought to prevent Coolmore from threatening bookshops or websites with legal action, and that the book was not defamatory and could be sold anywhere.

It was alleged Coolmore were trying to suppress sale and distribution of Jones’ book, self-published last November by his company Gold Rush Publications. Mr Jones contented that Coolmore were wrong to threaten the bookshops and should have gone to court and sued him.

In her judgment, Ms Justice Caroline Costello found Mr Jones had made out no arguable case entitling him to the injunctions.

Coolmore’s solicitors Arthur Cox had written to the Amazon website and various bookshops referring to potential proceedings for defamation. The book was later withdrawn by a number of distributors.

The justice noted that a claim by Mr Jones’ over his employment at the stud brought to the Labour Relations Comission was compromised under a December 2014 agreement. Jones was paid €30,000, both sides agreed not to make any derogatory comments about each other in the future and Jones undertook not to disclose any records relating to animals or clients of the stud.

Justice Costello found Coolmore, through its solicitors, made clear to Mr Jones, before his book was published, it was relying on the December 2014 agreement and, if the book contained any defamatory material which infringed the copyright of a number of third parties, it would make distributors and sellers aware of their potential liability.

Coolmore elected not to sue Mr Jones and instead its lawyers wrote to retailers and distributors alleging the book contained defamatory content breaching the legal rights of the stud and other parties associated.

There was no obligation on Coolmore to sue Mr Jones for defamation. The right to send the letters complained of was inherent in the right of access to the courts and implicit in the Defamation Act. While Mr Jones argued he could prove the book’s contents were true, that did not mean it was wrong to send the letters to retailers.

Although Mr Jones argued he signed the agreement under duress, he received benefit under it and cannot now ignore it, she also said. “The actions of the plaintiff (Jones) in publishing this book amount to grave breaches of that agreement,” the justice stated. He had not claimed duress until a year after signing it.

The justice also refused the injunctions on grounds, if Mr Jones won his full action, damages would be an adequate remedy.

She further ruled the balance of convenience was against the orders after finding the book contained comments derogatory of Coolmore and clients of the stud.

A statement from Coolmore said: “Mr Jones's application for an injunction has, in Coolmore's opinion, been shown to be without merit and cynical, with today’s judgement from Ms Justice Costello questioning the genuineness of Mr Jones' belief that he had in fact been wronged by Coolmore.

Today’s judgement confirms that Coolmore’s decision to write to booksellers, alerting them that the book is defamatory and of their resultant potential liability should they choose to sell it, was entirely appropriate, legitimate and proper.

The judgement states that an injunction would have 'afforded protection to a work which itself infringes the copyright of four individuals'.

The judgment states that the actions of Mr. Jones in publishing the book amounted to ‘grave breaches’ of an employment settlement agreement entered into by Mr. Jones. Those breaches include the fact that the book contains derogatory comments about Coolmore and its employees, and discloses confidential information about Coolmore and its clients.

"The sole aim in all of Coolmore's actions in relation to Mr Jones has been to protect the good name of Coolmore Stud and its staff from unfair and untrue allegations. We regret that, as stated in the judgement, Mr Jones made no effort to avail of the many opportunities that were offered to resolve matters prior to the book’s publication.”

Mr Jones contacted The Irish Field to say he would be appealing the decision. He said: "It should be noted that no defamation proceedings have been instigated against my book, let alone proven in a court of law."