Former Dunfermline owner Gavin Masterton has lost a court bid to stop the stricken football club's administrators getting out of a lease after a judge heard the legal move threatened liquidation for the East End Park side.
Lord Woolman said he had to consider the rights of a secured creditor against a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) that would save the club from going into liquidation.
The judge said Pars United, which aims to take over at the First Division side, would not sign a purchase agreement if it acquired residual obligations under the lease over the club's training ground at Pitreavie, in Fife.
He said: "Unless there is a renunciation it is unclear how the administrators or Pars United can divest themselves of these lease obligations." The judge said he held the balance of convenience in the action for an interim interdict tipped in favour of the administrators, BDO, and he would refuse the application.
Mr Masterton had a security on the lease worth £500,000 and had sought to stop the administrators granting a renunciation of it to Fife Council.
His counsel David Logan said there was a proposal by "a company of substance" to take on the lease.
He said his client was anxious to protect the position of Dunfermline but maintained the way the issue was being handled was disregarding their rights.
He argued there was no reliable information that would support the contention that it was "a deal breaker" with Pars United.
But Euan Duthie, counsel for the administrators, told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that interim funding provided for Dunfermline by Pars United had been exhausted.
In a statement issued last night, Mr Masterton said: "I would stress that it has always been my intention to ensure the survival of DAFC and I have written off vast sums of my own money to allow this to happen, and at no time did I seek or wish the liquidation of the Football Club."
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