A long-running legal battle involving the Isle of Man’s aborted space programme has been settled out of court.
But the programme never left the ground and some of the Soviet-era technology proposed to have been used ended up on display at Jurby Motor Museum.
Since 2014 the island-based space exploration company behind the project, Excalibur Almaz, had been embroiled in a legal battle with Japanese entrepreneur Takafumi Horie.
Mr Horie lodged a claim in a court in Texas alleging fraud, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty against Excalibur Almaz chairman and Texas attorney Art Dula, associate attorney in Dula’s law office Anat Friedman and business partner John Buckner Hightower.
He alleged he was fraudulently induced into investing $49m into a space travel enterprise, claiming there never was and never would be any such business.
But his claims were dismissed by the Texas courts in 2017 and his appeal rejected in 2018.
Excalibur Almas issued a claim in 2015 against Mr Horie in the island’s high court, seeking enforcement of a 2010 agreement which they say indemnified them against costs. The company also sought damages for alleged breach of that agreement.
Its claim and Mr Horie’s counterclaim had been set down for trial in the Manx high court on April 28 with the case scheduled to last three weeks.
But the case did not go ahead after Mr Horie dropped his claim and paid £30,000 towards Excalibur Almaz’s costs, leading to the latter withdrawing its own claims.
In a statement, the directors of Excalibur Almaz said: ‘On Friday April 25, the directors of Excalibur Almaz Limited received notification that Mr Takafumi Horie wished to discontinue all his actions against the company and related parties.
‘Mr Horie first brought his claims against the company and its directors and related parties in Texas. These claims were dismissed in 2018.
‘Following withdrawal of his claims in the Isle of Man and his agreement to pay £30,000 towards the company’s costs of the litigation, the company has agreed to withdraw its own claims against Mr Horie and the three-week trial has been avoided.
‘The directors of Excalibur Almaz respect the decision by Mr Horie and are pleased that his action has been withdrawn. It is unfortunate that the action was brought in the first place.’
The added: ‘Now that there are no actions pending against the company, the directors can once again move forward in exploring options for the commercialisation of the company assets.
‘The company has a number of its assets displayed at the Isle of Man Motor Museum in Jurby, including a twice flown into space capsule, a further space capsule and a partly complete space station which is of the same module as one of the modules comprising the International Space Station.
‘The company also has a further space capsule in pristine condition, currently located at the International Space University in Strasbourg.’