A HOUSEWIFE and co-director of her husband's company, who claimed she took no interest in its affairs, has been ordered to meet a £30,000 company debt to the Ulster Bank.
Mrs Mandy Nolan, a mother of three, of Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Shankill, Co Dublin, told Judge James Carroll in the Circuit Civil Court she never questioned the content or consequences of any company document her former husband, John, laid before her to sign.
The judge told her counsel, Mr John Fox, he did not think she was a person who could be made to surrender her own will and if she chose not to read what she signed she would have to accept the consequences.
"I cannot accept her picture of herself as a submissive, obedient wife with no will or judgment of her own," he said. "No presumption of undue influence has been raised and she, in evidence, did not claim any excessive pressure had been brought to bear on her."
Judge Carroll told Mr Paul O'Neill, counsel for the bank, that Mrs Nolan had admitted it was her signature on the document guaranteeing £30,000 of working capital forwarded to Dimensional Ceilings Ltd which had ceased trading in 1983.
He felt the bank's officials had acted properly in the transaction and he rejected her defence of having unwittingly signed the guarantee without having received independent legal advice.