Businessman takes court action against Jedward

A small number of fans of Jedward sat outside court

An action by a businessman against former X-factor contestants Jedward and their parents over an alleged merchandising agreement has opened at the High Court.

Patrick Joseph Noonan claims total losses of more than €625,000. This included around €250,000 for an alleged loss of the opportunity of selling a Jedward board game to another party.

The case is against identical twins John and Edward Grimes, both aged 26, from Dublin and known as Jedward, along with their estranged parents, John Grimes and Susanna Condron.

All the defendants deny the claims.

A small number of fans of Jedward sat outside court. Jedward got to the finals of The X Factor in 2009, represented Ireland twice in the Eurovision song contest and also appeared in Celebrity Big Brother.

Mr Noonan alleges it was agreed at various meetings from 2011 involving one or other or both parents, allegedly acting as agents of their sons, that he was to be reimbursed for costs relating to sourcing and developing Jedward merchandise, including jigsaws, wristbands, boardgames and a magazine.

In evidence, Mr Noonan said he was a civil engineer with various business interests also involved in assisting start-up ventures.

He has considerable interest in the film industry and brought a lot of jobs to Limerick via Tristar Studios, he said.

As a result of knowing a first cousin of John Grimes senior, there were meetings in 2011 to discuss Mr Noonan's idea of a Jedward boardgame and other matters, he said. 

His memo of the first meeting at his home in Limerick in August 2011 described the twins as "lovely lads (hyper)".

His understanding from that encounter was he would be working for Jedward, they were "the bosses" and he would get paid.

They had talked about board games and he was assured the twins would promote those via their website, tweets and a newspaper column.

There was also talk of setting up a Jedward Foundation for charitable purposes, he said.

His memo recorded the twins appeared "to lose interest" after about an hour started "running around the house" and eating fruit.

He said he spent money personally on the merchandise before two limited liability companies were set up and he understood that he would be paid for what he spent.

He also took steps in 2011 to ensure the name Jedward was protected on behalf of the twins.

Mr Noonan's Senior Counsel, Patrick O'Reilly, said Jedward unfortunately did not make their "best efforts" to promote the merchandise.

He said what is "clear certain" is Mr Noonan paid for all of these items and has not received "one cent" for them, all of which are Jedward merchandise.

Merchandise remains stored in a facility in Co Donegal and a dispute about payment for storage led at one stage to some merchandise being put out on the street briefly, he said.

At no time until the pleadings were entered had the defendants said they did not have to pay Mr Noonan, contending there was a joint venture to be run through two limited liability firms and any loss was of those two companies, not Mr Noonan's.

It was agreed costs would be paid back to Mr Noonan because Jedward was contractually bound to UK merchandising company Bravada and could not enter into any other form of contracts, counsel argued.

Relations between Mr Noonan and the defendants began to sour from summer 2012 when Mr Noonan found out some wristbands produced by him had been sold by the defendants and they had not at all accounted for receipts from the sales, counsel said.

Mr Noonan had ordered 40,000 wristbands in eight types from China in 2011 for which he paid €97,000.

The case continues tomorrow.