The Master of the High Court yesterday rejected an application by the Mahon tribunal for a court order aimed at enabling the tribunal to pursue Mr Liam Lawlor for legal costs of more than €430,000.
Master Edmund Honohan refused an application on behalf of the tribunal to substitute the name of the retired tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Feargus Flood, with the name of his successor, Mr Justice Mahon.
The tribunal had sought the substitution so it could pursue High Court proceedings against Mr Lawlor for legal costs.
Master Honohan said that, while his reasons for refusing the application related to very technical matters, he did not want the media saying this was a major success for Mr Lawlor.
He said it was simply a loose end as a result of Mr Justice Flood's resignation.
He also adjourned to January 16th six separate applications to the court seeking a declaration that legal costs incurred by the tribunal in proceedings concerning Mr Lawlor for more than €430,000 were "well charged" on the five-acre Lawlor family home at Somerton, Lucan, Co Dublin.
Mr Lawlor, in an affidavit filed with the tribunal's applications, said the property was no longer in his name.
He said that, months before the tribunal was suggested, he had transferred his interest to his wife, Hazel.
Before the transfer he had owed financial institutions a total of about €990,000, but had since discharged or compromised his liabilities with all these institutions.
The Irish Nationwide held a mortgage over Somerton House, with about €18,000 outstanding.
Mr Lawlor said the financial pressures he experienced in the early 1990s, and which culminated in various payments between 1995 and 1997, were "a harrowing and chastening experience" both for his wife and himself and had reinforced for him the vulnerable position he had placed his wife in regarding the family home.
Having finally put his financial affairs in order once again, he had transferred his entire interest in the home and surrounding lands to Mrs Lawlor.
Before the Master yesterday Mr Michael Block, for the tribunal, said he was applying for the replacement of Mr Justice Flood's name with the name of Mr Justice Mahon under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act, 2002. He believed Mr Lawlor's side was neither objecting nor consenting to the application.
The Master said he was being asked to substitute a new plaintiff for an existing plaintiff in a situation where there was no chain of title between the two.
Mr Justice Flood had been awarded costs in his own name, and he must assign that either to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government or to the next chairperson if there was to be an appropriate substitution.
The award was not made to the tribunal.
In those circumstances, he refused the tribunal's application.
He agreed to put a stay of four weeks on the order so that the tribunal might consider if it wished to challenge his decision.