Quinn’s wife makes ‘incredible’ claims

THE wife of bankrupt businessman Sean Quinn is making “incredible” claims she does not have to repay a €3 million bank loan because she is a homemaker unduly influenced by her husband and regularly signed documents he put in front of her without reading them, the Commercial Court was told yesterday.

Patricia Quinn’s claim she was not liable on grounds of undue influence of her husband by virtue of their marital status was “an incredible proposition” in breach of the Constitution, said Paul Gallagher, for the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly said that in law, there had been no presumption of undue influence between a husband and wife since 1750. Such a presumption was “news to me” and would be “very good news” for those with spendthrift spouses who have to pay their bills. It would be “extraordinary” if every wife in the country was presumed to be under the undue influence of her husband.