Michael Fingleton’s lawyers to seek Supreme Court appeal in bid to halt case against him

Lawyers for former Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) boss Michael Fingleton are to seek a Supreme Court appeal over a refusal to halt a case against him for alleged negligent mismanagement of the society.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald was told on Friday the Fingleton side wants to bring an appeal to the Supreme Court over last May’s Court of Appeal (CoA) decision refusing to halt the trial.

The challenge had been sought due to the passage of time and because of severe ill health of Mr Fingleton (85) which would create a real or substantial risk of an unfair trial or an unjust result.

The case had been initiated in 2012 by the liquidators of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) who alleged, among various claims, that INBS’s €6 billion losses from 2008-2010 arose from development loans made when Mr Fingleton was CEO and when he had excessive control over the society’s business. Mr Fingleton denied the claims.

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He brought a High Court challenge seeking to stop the case on health grounds. Mr Fingleton suffered a severe stroke in May 2018 leaving him physically and cognitively incapacitated, the court heard.

The High Court rejected the challenge in 2021. He appealed. By 2022, Mr Fingleton’s wife, Eileen, and his son Michael Fingleton jnr were added as defendants in a representative capacity to the case.

That appeal heard the IBRC liquidators would limit their claim to damages arising from five series of loans spanning 2006 to 2009.

Following the CoA’s decision, the case returned before Mr Justice McDonald a number of times to deal with the outcome of the appeal and other preliminary matters.

On Friday, the judge was told by Lyndon MacCann SC, for IRBC, and Padraic Lyons SC, for the Fingletons, that due to the intended application by the defendants for leave to appeal the CoA decision to the Supreme Court, the hearing of the High Court action should be adjourned.

Mr Justice McDonald agreed with counsel that if the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal there was unlikely to be a decision before the beginning of next year. In those circumstances, he agreed to fix the hearing provisionally for March 2024.