Courts

Hearing to extend businessman’s bankruptcy to proceed after judge strikes out ‘annulment’ move

June hearing date fixed for extension application over alleged non co-operation with bankruptcy trustee by Wexford businessman Alan Hynes

Businessman Alan Hynes did not participate in a remote hearing before Mr Justice Liam Kennedy in the High Court on Monday. Photograph: Aidan Crawley

Mary Carolan
Mon Apr 8 2024 - 16:13

An application by Wexford businessman Alan Hynes to have his bankruptcy adjudication annulled has been struck out by the High Court over his failure to comply with an order to serve the relevant papers.

Mr Justice Liam Kennedy has fixed a hearing date of June 10th for a separate application by the official assignee (OA), the trustee administering Mr Hynes’s bankruptcy, to extend it over alleged his alleged non co-operation with that administration.

An interim extension of the October 2022 bankruptcy continues pending a full hearing of the extension application.

Mr Hynes did not participate in a remote hearing before Mr Justice Kennedy on Monday when both applications were mentioned.

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Michael Connolly, for the OA, said Mr Hynes had been in communication via email and might be attending a matter in the Circuit Court.

Counsel said the OA’s extension application had been mentioned before the High Court three times previously this year. Mr Hynes had said he had made applications for legal aid and did not participate in two of the hearings.

At the most recent hearing on March 11th, the court directed Mr Hynes to serve his annulment application within seven days on Fieldfisher solicitors, for the OA, but that had not been not done, counsel said.

Although Mr Hynes engaged with the OA’s solicitors, he ignored the court’s requirement to serve the relevant papers and, in those circumstances, the OA wanted the annulment application to be struck out, Mr Connolly said.

Mr Hynes has not replied to the OA’s application for extension of his bankruptcy or provided any update concerning the legal aid applications, counsel added.

A letter from Mr Hynes to Fieldfisher ignored the court’s requirements and represents a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the bankruptcy process, Mr Connolly said.

Mr Hynes, he said, had looked for details about a property but disregarded the requests made of him and the seriousness of the situation.

The letter “gives a flavour” of his attitude to court directions and his annulment application, he added.

Mr Justice Kennedy said Mr Hynes had been given “ample opportunity” to respond and, in the circumstances, his annulment application would be struck out.

The judge fixed the bankruptcy extension for hearing, in person, on June 10th and said Mr Hynes had 14 days, from April 8th, to put in his response to that.

The court previously heard Mr Hynes had failed to get a stay on the 2022 bankruptcy order and had failed to show up at the Court of Appeal for his appeal against that order. The appeal went ahead in his absence and was dismissed.

The High Court adjudicated Mr Hynes and his estranged wife Noreen Dunphy as bankrupts on foot of petitions from John and Bridget Atkinson, of Glenbrien, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, who obtained judgment against them in 2009 for more than €200,000.

Ms Dunphy, who had also failed in her bid to have the adjudication against her paused or quashed, has since exited bankruptcy.

A tribunal of the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board in 2015 excluded Mr Hynes from the Institute of Chartered Accountants following a hearing sparked by complaints from investors who lost more than €18 million on his failed property development ventures.

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan

Mary Carolan is the Legal Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times

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