Man who lost house blames bank for wife’s suicide

A Co Dublin man who lost his €750,000 home for failing to keep up repayments has told a judge he was suing Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank for damages over his wife's suicide.

Patrick Cahill, of Grace Park Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin, told Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court that harassment of his late wife by the bank "had led to her suicide".

Barrister Eithne Corry, counsel for the bank, told the court that bank officials in sworn affidavits had rejected Mr Cahill’s claims and allegations.

Ms Corry, who appeared with Jonathan Finan of Kane Tuohy Solicitors, said the bank had facilitated Mr Cahill with a €750,000 loan offer in 2006 and gave him a 25-year mortgage for that amount.

She told Judge Linnane that arrears in repayments had been consistent between October 2009 and June 2011. The last repayment made by Mr Cahill had been in July 2013.

Ms Corry said Mr Cahill, following correspondence, had been declared non-co-operative by the bank in 2014 and a demand for repayment of the full debt had been made in June 2015.

Issues rejected

Mr Cahill had raised three issues the bank did not accept – that it had no legal standing; that there were questionable matters regarding the mortgage itself; and that there were issues regarding the deponents who had sworn the affidavits on behalf of the bank.

Ms Corry said Mr Cahill had told the bank he had no problem making mortgage repayments to any entity that could show it had legal status in the matter. She said he had been paying off the mortgage for a considerable time before payments stopped.

She said he had also made allegations of fraud and misrepresentation against the bank which officials who had dealt with mortgage details had described as “scandalous”.

Counsel told the court that total arrears as of November 22nd stood at €159,500 and the balance due on the mortgage now stood at €780,300.

Judge Linnane said there had been no effort by Mr Cahill to engage with the bank and he had not disputed that he had made no payments since July 2013.

"The existence of High Court proceedings which Mr Cahill has brought against the bank, including loss of consortium, in my view are not a bar to the bank exercising its rights under the mortgage which Mr Cahill executed," Judge Linnane said.

She said there had been various claims made in Mr Cahill’s affidavits which had been opened to the court and none of which had been substantiated in any way, shape or form.

The court was satisfied the bank’s papers were in order and accepted that none of the points raised by Mr Cahill in his affidavits established any defence to the bank’s claim for possession.

She made an order for possession in favour of the bank with a stay of three months and an order for the bank’s legal costs.