Monarch Airlines Engineering, Ltd. v. Intercon (Cattle-meats), Ltd.

Intercon (Cattle-meats), Ltd. (Intercon) (defendant) owned an airplane, which it primarily used to transport cattle from Ireland to Germany for the German limited partnership Friedrich Dobler KG. Friedrich Dobler paid Intercon for these transports. Intercon was founded in 1973 but was inactive until 1976, when Dieter and Gunther Dobler provided financing (likely originating from Friedrich Dobler) that allowed Intercon to buy its airplane. Irishman Predrig O’Toole was Intercon’s managing director. The Doblers owned 42 percent of Intercon, and Irish shareholders, including O’Toole, owned the rest. Intercon and O’Toole were not shareholders in Friedrich Dobler, and O’Toole was not a director of any Dobler company. Monarch Airline Engineering, Ltd. (Monarch) (plaintiff) provided airplane maintenance and engineering services to Intercon. Monarch sued Intercon for unpaid services. Intercon asserted a counterclaim against Monarch, alleging that Monarch was responsible for the crash and destruction of Intercon’s plane. The court ruled for Intercon, and Monarch paid Intercon approximately £300,000. However, the remainder of Intercon’s counterclaim was transferred to a referee. Monarch requested that Dieter, Gunther, Friedrich Dobler, and O’Toole be made parties to the action because Intercon was insolvent and the additional parties might be liable for costs if Monarch prevailed on Intercon’s counterclaim. In support of its effort to pierce Intercon’s corporate veil on the ground that Intercon was an agent for Dieter, Gunter, and Friedrich Dobler, Monarch cited (1) Dieter’s references (through an interpreter) to Intercon as “our airline” and multiple similar statements; (2) a pre-1976 principal-agent relationship between O’Toole and Friedrich Dobler, which Dieter testified remained in effect; (3) a Friedrich Dobler letter that referred to “our airline Intercon;” and (4) Intercon’s substantial indebtedness to the Doblers and very small indebtedness to its Irish directors.