Auckland investment banker Bill Birnie will face trial in March next year after losing a High Court bid to stay a $19 million damages claim brought by shareholders of Birnie Capital Property Partnership.

At a hearing in April Justice Raynor Asher granted BCPP shareholders Allen Peters and Bernard Quinn leave to pursue the hefty damages claim, a move that could financially cripple the former Fay Richwhite banker.

Mr Birnie and his associates then changed lawyers and asked to stay the case, pending the outcome of an appeal.

Four of five Capital + Merchant directors have applied to have criminal charges against them dismissed on grounds of what the court heard today to be “administrative” legal issues.

Directors Neal Nicholls, Owen Tallentire, Colin Ryan and Robert Sutherland, together with Wayne Douglas, who was registered as a director in February 2007, face criminal charges laid by the Securities Commission.

Mr Nicolls and Mr Douglas appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning while the three other directors were excused due to their living in Australia.

Former Feltex chief financial officer Des Tolan today admitted the company should have disclosed a breach of banking covenants in its December 2005 interim financial statements but he blamed auditor Ernst & Young for the oversight.

Mr Tolan also admitted that Feltex’s debt to ANZ should have been classified as a current liability in the accounts but that at the time he regarded the debt as non-current.

Top accounting firm Ernst & Young is back in the spotlight for its role in overseeing the financial statements of Feltex and the status of the carpet maker’s debt to ANZ Bank.

In a key development in the trial of five former Feltex directors, Judge Jan Doogue has allowed full disclosure of Ernst & Young files to be included in evidence during the case.