Anglo’s Drumm action adjourned

AN action by Anglo Irish Bank against its former chief executive David Drumm over €8 million unpaid loans has been taken out of the Commercial Court list.

Anglo wants to recover €8m from Mr Drumm while he is counter-claiming for 2.6m in salary, pension and deferred bonus payments and damages, including for “mental distress”.

Yesterday at the Commercial Court Mr Justice Peter Kelly said he was adjourning the case generally and also took the matter out of the fast-track commercial list.

The judge said that clearly “the urgency has gone out of the matter,” and it could now proceed via the ordinary High Court non-jury list.

The action was fixed for hearing before the Commercial Court last October. However, the action was not able to go ahead as just days earlier Mr Drumm filed for bankruptcy in the US.

Previously the court was told that Anglo were unable to inform the Commercial Court what was to happen to its action here because of a worldwide stay on legal proceedings against Mr Drumm as a result of that filing for bankruptcy.

Yesterday the court heard that in the US proceedings March 18 had originally been set as the date by which any claims to prevent Mr Drumm’s discharge in bankruptcy must be submitted. However, that date had now been pushed back to May 3. As a result counsel for Anglo said that it wished to have the action adjourned generally as the Irish proceedings are contingent on events in the US.

Counsel representing Ms Kathleen Dwyer, the US trustee in bankruptcy dealing with Mr Drumm’s application, said his client had no objection.

Mr Justice Kelly had previously expressed his concern that the Irish proceedings had been adjourned several times.

The action, he added, was ready for hearing last year but was adjourned arising out of Mr Drumm’s application for bankruptcy.

However, it was now clear to the court that the action in the US would take much longer than had been originally anticipated. There was, the judge said, no point in having the matter adjourned from time to time and running up substantial legal costs.

He gave the parties involved in the action liberty to mention the action before the High Court should the need arise.