Retired businessman Jonathan Irving says he feels vindicated after the high court ruled in his favour in a long-running battle over the winding up of his Street Heritage company.

Mr Irving and his son Jamie are claiming damages of several million pounds for losses they said they incurred as a result of Street Heritage going into liquidation.

As the Manx Independent reported last week, in a High Court judgment, Deemster Corlett ruled that Street Heritage’s advocate Jerry Carter had been negligent by not turning up in time for the winding up hearing that took place on February 24, 2010.

Deemster Corlett concluded it would have been ’very probable’ that the court would have agreed to adjourn the case, giving the company time to attempt to put together a rescue package.

Mr Irving has now told the Examiner that in the light of that judgment, they may look at pursuing further claims against other parties, including the government.

He said: ’The claim is for several million and we will now be reviewing everything with counsel in light of His Honour Deemster Corlett’s judgment.’

And he added: ’As a family, at long last we feel vindicated and hope that we can now draw a line under this and move on. We are eternally grateful for all the considerable support that we have received over the last difficult years. That support and encouragement spurred us on to ensure that the incontrovertible truth - and justice itself- finally prevailed.’

Street Heritage was wound up following a short court hearing in February 2010, over an unpaid tax bill totalling £182,929.

For reasons which ’remain obscure to this day’, the then government advocate Stephen Harding, who was later to become Attorney General, did not inform Deemster Doyle that Mr Carter was instructed by the Irvings and an adjournment was not opposed,

That ’inexplicable conduct’ began a ’regrettable chain of events’ that ultimately led to the the collapse of the Irvings’ business empire, the judgment says.

Ticket sales for the 2010 Bay Festival, which the Irvings were organising through a separate company, started to dry up and it went on to make a loss.

Advocate Jerry Carter said he was told by the Irvings that the hearing was at 10am but by the time he had arrived at 9.40am, the case had already been dealt with.

Deemster Corlett said: ’The company and the Irvings therefore lost the chance of staving off the winding-up order.’

He concluded that Mr Carter acted negligently and was in breach of contract in not ensuring he knew the correct time for the hearing and not bringing the deemster back into court to rescind the winding-up order.

The deemster said: ’There was a distinct possibility that SHL would have survived and there was most certainly an arguable case to be put to Deemster Doyle based on the way in which the petition was pleaded.

For his part, Mr Carter said he believed that the Irvings’ financial empire was due to collapse in any event as Street Heritage was ’clearly insolvent’ at the time of the presentation of the winding-up petition, with other creditors ’waiting in the wings’.

The deemster said Mr Carter’s conduct of the case was characterised by his ’willingness to bend over backwards’ to be fair to the government’s arguments rather than to be a ’fearless advocate for his own client’.

’It is clear no one knew the accurate financial position of SHL,’ he said. ’There was a distinct possibility that SHL would have survived and there was most certainly an arguable case to be put.’

He found the Irvings were not guilty of contributing to the situation and that Mr Carter’s breach of duty and contract were capable of causing the type of losses alleged by the Irvings, including those incurred in the 2010 Bay Music Festival.

The judgment does not deal with any award of damages.