Record judgment would see Quinn repay €417m

BANKRUPT businessman Sean Quinn has been ordered by the Commercial Court to repay about €417 million to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, the largest summary judgment amount ever entered in the courts here against an individual.

The bank had sought total summary judgment orders of about €2 billion. Mr Justice Peter Kelly said yesterday that the bank had a “powerful” case for the entirety of these, to which Mr Quinn seemed to have no defence.

He ruled that IBRC was entitled to the amount as Mr Quinn had admitted in his bankruptcy proceedings in the North that he was liable to the bank for sums of $219.9m and €253.9m.

Given the admission, it would require “extraordinary” circumstances to refuse judgment in those sums, he said. However, as a courtesy to the North’s official receiver in bankruptcy, he would hold until Monday his decision whether to grant summary judgment for the remaining €1.6bn to allow the receiver to consider if he wishes to seek a stay on the bank’s proceedings.

Mr Quinn voluntarily filed for bankruptcy in Belfast on November 11, nine days after the bank initiated the summary judgment proceedings here.

IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, has since brought proceedings in the North seeking to annul his adjudication as bankrupt. Those proceedings will come before the courts today but are unlikely to be determined before 2012.

Mr Justice Kelly said he was “very inclined” to enter summary judgment for the total amount as the bank had made “a powerful case” and it was difficult to see how Mr Quinn had any defence given the “tightly drawn” guarantees and other instruments under which he was being sued.

If the receiver seeks a stay, the basis for such an application and what advantages the receiver expected to glean from it “will have to be explained to me”, the judge added. “To date, I have not heard of any.”

Last Monday, the Northern receiver sought an adjournment of the bank’s summary judgment proceedings but the bank resisted. Mr Justice Kelly reserved judgment on the adjournment application and noted the bank had three actions seeking summary judgment for “enormous” sums from Mr Quinn.

The first involved claims for €1.05bn, $808m and 13.8bn yen allegedly due under a deed of guarantee and indemnity of November 2007 in which Mr Quinn guaranteed the liabilities of Quinn Finance related to loans made to finance ventures in Russia, India and other places.

The second case sought to recover €372.2m over guarantees executed by Mr Quinn in 2003, 2005 and 2007 over loans made to several Quinn companies while the third case related to €3m personal borrowings of Mr Quinn and his wife Patricia. (The claim against Mrs Quinn in that regard has been adjourned to next month.)