BANKRUPT BUSINESSMAN Seán Quinn has made an unexpected first court appearance in the action by his wife and five children aimed at avoiding liability for loans of €2.34 billion made by Anglo Irish Bank to Quinn group companies.
Describing himself as a “simple farmer’s son”, the man whose disclosure in 2007 of having a 24 per cent stake in Anglo allegedly led to an unlawful strategy by the bank to “shovel” hundreds of millions into propping up its share price, said he wanted to personally defend the bank’s claim that he has a liability to it.
The complex proceedings are still at pre-trial stage and Mr Quinn sat quietly at the rear of Court Number One of the Four Courts yesterday until the action, No 22 in the Commercial Court list, was reached after midday.
When the case was called, Mr Justice Peter Kelly read a letter sent to him by Mr Quinn asking to be allowed personally defend the case and called Mr Quinn to sit in the front bench alongside lawyers for Anglo.
As the Official Assignee in bankruptcy is not defending the case on behalf of Mr Quinn, he needs court leave to defend himself and Anglo will oppose that.
Mr Quinn said Anglo, having joined him to the case, “now doesn’t want me”. As “a major part” of the Anglo-Quinn situation over the last 10 years, he “would have thought it was useful for the court to hear my views”.
Mr Justice Kelly, saying he was conscious Mr Quinn was a lay litigant, asked how much time he would need to prepare his application for leave to defend.
Mr Quinn said he would not need much time, maybe a week to 10 days, he was “a simple farmer’s son” and the judge would decide the law.
“I’m a simple man myself,” the judge responded.
The judge fixed Mr Quinn’s application for hearing on March 15th. When asked about serving documents by email, Mr Quinn said he was “not big into emails” and the judge directed service on him by post.
