Another week, another court case for developer Liam Carroll, whose companies have now had seven separate High Court actions issued against them since the start of the year.

Last week the Sunday Tribune revealed that Marks & Spencer, estate agent Savills, Mercury Engineering, Fire Design Solutions and Coolair had issued proceedings against Carroll's company, Danninger. Last Monday, Castlebrook Furniture & Design also issued proceedings against Danninger, while High Court documents show Savills is taking a second case against Carroll, this time against a company called Dez Developments. Carroll's Dez Developments was used in his Tallaght Cross scheme in west Dublin, where last month the developer closed two hotels he had developed.

The case against Dez is not the only legal problem facing the developer in Tallaght. In June, Carroll, along with companies called Tafica and Aifca, as well as former IRA hunger striker Tom McFeely and his business partner Larry O'Mahony, are listed for an eight-week hearing of a €150m dispute in the big business division of the High Court.

The legal proceedings have been taken by Redfern, a company controlled by developer and solicitor Noel Smyth, and relate to a €300m expansion of The Square shopping centre in Tallaght on land where Lowe Taverns (Tallaght), a subsidiary of Aifca, had a car parking licence.

Smyth needed to acquire the licence to allow the expansion of The Square but he also had to complete the development by June of last year if he wanted to take advantage of the huge urban renewal tax reliefs that were available for new schemes in the Tallaght area. The allowances were worth about €70m. Redfern is also seeking damages and loss of profits, bringing the total claim to about €150m. There has been some attempt at mediation between the parties but it ended in failure.

Redfern is claiming that breach of contract by Aifca, which was owned by McFeely and O'Mahony, delayed work on the Square development and meant it could not take advantage of the allowances. However, O'Mahony and McFeely say they entered an agreement with Carroll to refinance their loan facilities in September 2006 and as a result Carroll subscribed for more than 50% of the issued share capital of Aifca, meaning they no longer control the company.

At the end of 2006, Companies Office records show, Aifca had net liabilities of over €7.3m. In a contingent liabilities note, it states that if the company, its directors, Lowe Taverns (Tallaght) or any connected person, transfers, surrenders or loses the benefit of the licence, then McFeely and O'Mahony are due an extra €5m within 14 business days.

A miscellaneous debtor's note in the accounts reveals that Bank of Scotland (Ireland) had an "absolute entitlement to 15% of the value" of the Lowe Taverns (Tallaght) site licence and an option to acquire 15% of the share capital of either Aifca or Lowe Taverns (Tallaght). In September 2006, Aifca paid €10m to the bank as a once-off payment in relation to that agreement. Three months later they began legal proceedings to recover that money and related legal costs. In September 2007, Bank of Scotland (Ireland) agreed to pay €4.5m to the company as full and final settlement of the proceedings.

Carroll's Danninger has also been before the Labour Court recently. Danninger introduced a fingerprint-based biometric clocking system for employees in January 2007 because, it told the Labour Court, of "serious abuse by a number of hourly paid workers of the manually-operated clocking system".

Siptu took a case to the Labour Court last year relating to that, stating that it was introduced without consultation and that it failed to comply with Data Protection Act requirements that any system "be relevant and not excessive". The union argued that the system was introduced on foot of the dismissal of a small number of employees for abusing the previous system and that it was excessive to introduce it for all employees.

Danninger said there was no infringement "of the fundamental rights of employees as copies of the fingerprints are not stored nor can they be retrieved from the system". It argued that changing the system would place "unsustainable additional costs" on Danninger.

In a recommendation issued last September, the Labour Court suggested that the clocking system should continue, provided it is transparent and complies with data protection criteria.

The union also complained about Danninger's policy of site-specific lay-offs, but Danninger said a company-wide "last in, first out" system would put it at a disadvantage and "unfairly restrict its ability to carry out its business in a competitive manner in an increasingly difficult environment".

The court found that the lay-off issue "should be the subject of urgent consultations between the parties, who should agree a fair and transparent system which is practical and which stands up legally".

Self-made developer Carroll became the undisputed king of speculative construction in Dublin during the boom years, building office blocks and retail buildings without tenants in place in the belief that the rapidly growing economy would provide him with tenants. When those tenants came along, he was willing to undercut rival developers ruthlessly to secure them. Google in the south docks and Anglo Irish Bank on the north docks, for example, reputedly signed deals to lease space at rents that were about 50% below the market rate.

Now, though, with the global economy in crisis, Carroll has some empty buildings on his hands. These include the Anglo building, which will remain a shell until at least June when An Bord Pleanála is due to rule on whether the building can be completed, as well as a 200,000 square-foot office building at East Road near the IFSC, and a shopping centre in Limerick.

He has also initiated a legal action against Dublin City Council using a company called Burwood House Developments (Ireland) after it ruled that insufficient development has been carried out at the former Hammond Lane metalworks site, compared to the overall scale of the office development planned by Carroll, to justify an extension of the planning permission. He has also slashed apartment prices in some of his developments in recent months.