Former High Court Taxing Master gets more time for debt deal with creditors

The High Court has granted former High Court Taxing Master James Flynn a longer period of protection from his creditors to facilitate negotiations to resolve his debts of €3.5 million.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens gave Mr Flynn’s personal insolvency practitioner Eugene McDarby a further 40 days to negotiate a deal with his creditors to agree a personal insolvency arrangement, a mechanism that gives heavily indebted individuals a fresh financial start.

The judge extended the protective certificate beyond its expiry on January 2nd, preventing Mr Flynn’s creditors from taking action to bankrupt him or further pursuing attempts to collect their debts.

From 1993 to 2011, Mr Flynn served as High Court Taxing Master, an independent court officer appointed by the Government who decides disputes over legal fees in cases.

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The 72-year-old solicitor, who lives on Anglesea Street in Temple Bar in Dublin city centre, earns monthly income of just under €4,000 and is unable to pay his debts as they fall due.

When the case came before Mr Justice Owens on Monday, the judge asked Deirdre Miller BL, representing Mr McDarby in his application to the court, whether this was the solicitor Mr Flynn who was living over his office on Anglesea Street.

Mr Flynn owes €2.9 million to debt collection agency Everyday Finance DAC and €564,000 to the fund Havbell DAC which acquired a loan advanced by Permanent TSB to Mr Flynn in 2009. He owes a further €5,240 to AIB on a credit card.

His principal private residence on Anglesea Street is valued at €1.3 million but has a mortgage balance of €2.5 million secured on the property.

Mr McDarby told the court in an affidavit that Mr Flynn’s case under personal insolvency law arose as a result of a bankruptcy petition brought by Everyday.

That action has been adjourned pending the outcome of his attempts to agree a personal insolvency arrangement.

The personal insolvency practitioner said that he had circulated the insolvency arrangement to creditors. Under the proposal, Mr Flynn’s debts would be resolved with payments from a lump sum of €70,000 provided by an unnamed third party.

Under the arrangement as currently proposed to creditors, two apartments and a business unit owned by Mr Flynn in Dublin will be sold to reduce his debts.

“No creditor has indicated a rejection of the PIA yet. The PIA appears strong and appears to pay creditors very well and better than bankruptcy,” Mr McDarby told the court.

He said he may need to update and amend the PIA, engage with creditors to conclude an agreement and put more detail into the PIA to explain the position.

Mr McDarby told the court that an extension of the period of protective certificate was required to extend negotiations beyond the Christmas period and because there had to be 14 days’ notice for a meeting of creditors.

He said all parties were acting in good faith and that “with a 40-day extension this case will hopefully come to an amicable resolution,,” he said.

This is Mr Flynn’s second attempt at securing a debt write-off through a personal insolvency arrangement. The court rejected a previous attempt in 2019 because he did not meet a condition necessary for the court to consider whether or not to approve it.

That arrangement failed to win the support of a majority of his creditors.