The owners of the Ballymascanlon House Hotel in County Louth have taken an action for damages against search engine Google.
They claim their business and reputation have been defamed by Google's web search service.
They say that since about March 14 2011, Google has allowed the term "receivership" to automatically appear after the name of the hotel when a search is carried out. This suggested the hotel was in receivership or financial difficulty when it is not, the court was told.
The action is being taken by Oliver Quinn Senior, Oliver Quinn Junior, Niall Quinn and Ballymascanlon Holdings Limited against Google Ireland Ltd. Google Inc was later joined to the case as a codefendant.
The defendants brought a motion to have the proceedings fast-tracked in the Commercial Court but, when that motion came before Mr Justice Peter Kelly today, he was told both sides were consenting to have the transfer application adjourned for two weeks.
Mr Justice Kelly remarked that the case involved "an unusual commercial defamation claim". It was unusual to adjourn applications to entry to the Commercial Court list. He said he would grant an adjournment on this occasion but that was not to be taken as a precedent.
