Court to make €3.5m judgment orders in Mayo builder case

A judge has said he will make summary judgment orders for some €3.5 million over default on loan facilities made to a Mayo couple and their company.

Mr Justice Brian McGovern said he would hear counsel for the sides next week concerning whether the €3.5 million judgment should be made against the couple jointly and severally or whether a portion of the judgment should be against their company.

Thomas and Josephine Maloney, Carramore, Kiltimagh Road, Knock, Co Mayo, and Thomas Maloney Builders Ltd, had conceded they owed around €3.5 million after deducting what they claimed were disputed sums relating to some of the loan facilities they had obtained from AIB and AIB Mortgage Bank.

The loans included finance for properties in Knock while the company debt was in relation to hire purchase agreements entered into by the firm.

At the Commercial Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice said he would grant judgment for approximately €3.56 million, representing the amount due less €192,000 which the Maloneys claimed had been overcharged on the loans.

He remitted for hearing claims in relation to alleged overcharging concerning certain loan facility accounts.

Mr Justice McGovern said the defendants had, the evening before the summary judgment hearing on January 25th, provided an affidavit from a financial consultant from the North who audits bank accounts. The consultant had said the Maloneys should be given credit of €192,000 for overcharging by the bank.

‘Eleventh hour’

The judge said that affidavit from the financial consultant, who had purported to give evidence as an expert but who did not set out his qualifications other than to say he had 20 years’ experience auditing bank accounts, was “sprung upon” the plaintiff banks “at the eleventh hour” in “complete disregard” of the rules of the Commercial Court.

He would allow the defendants to rely on the affidavit as the court had to exercise caution in deciding whether to allow its introduction in circumstances where refusal to do so might lead to injustice.

He said he would remit the issue concerning the alleged €192,000 overcharging to a full hearing and would hear counsel for both sides next week as to whether the €3.5 million judgment order would be made against the Maloneys jointly and severally or whether a portion of the judgment should be against the company.

Regardless of the outcome of the hearing in relation to alleged overcharging, he was directing no costs associated with the financial consultant’s affidavit, or his attendance at court, should be imposed on the bank plaintiffs.

He was imposing this sanction in view of the “complete disregard” shown for the procedures of the Commercial Court in seeking to admit the consultant’s affidavit at the 11th hour, he said.