IBRC entitled to demand repayment of €36m lent to businessman, Commercial Court rules

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was entitled to demand repayment of €36 million in property and other loans given to businessman John Morrissey, the Commercial Court has ruled.

The relationship between the bank and Mr Morrissey, who described himself in 2000 as a "self-employed serial entrepreneur for 20 years with a mixed portfolio of activities", did not go beyond a normal contractual relationship, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan also found.

She was ruling on two preliminary issues prior to the hearing of the bank's application for judgment for some €36.7 million against Mr Morrissey over loan facilities granted in 2000 by IBRC's predecessor, Anglo Irish Bank, related to properties in Dublin, Kildare and Clare and the part-financing of purchase of a share portfolio.

The court heard Mr Morrissey had worked as an investment portfolio manager for Investment Bank of Ireland, set up an aircraft leasing business in 1994 and provided finance for software company Havoc before it was sold to Intel.

In 1997 he got involved in the property business, primarily acquiring and renovating period properties in Dublin 6 that he either sold on or rented.

In early 2009 Anglo viewed his €36m loans as impaired because of the diminished value of the properties provided as security on them and it demanded repayment. In January 2010 it appointed a receiver over his assets and in April 2011 sought summary judgment against him but the Commercial Court ruled he had an arguable defence entitling him to a full hearing.

It was claimed on behalf of Mr Morrissey, of Palmerston Road, Ranelagh, that he could not repay the loans because of bank’s conduct in collapsing the Irish property market and economy.

The collapse of his affairs was “so gross” he had suffered a brain haemhorrage, it was claimed. This was a reality faced by people whose lives were so turned up by financial institutions seeking to recover debt “without the slightest regard for the human consequences”, his lawyer said.

The bank argued it was entitled to call in its loans and it was “simplistic” to blame the collapse of the Irish property market and economy on Anglo alone.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said, in determining the two preliminary issues before her and on the evidence of Mr Morrissey, it regrettably appeared there was a “significant gap between his commercial expectation in his dealings with the bank and the contractual written terms to which he agreed”.

It was important to emphasise, given Mr Morrissey’s “obvious anger” at his treatment by the bank in not extending his loan facilities in 2010, this was not a dispute involving a court review in which public law principles applied, she said.