Quinn refused to unlock gates for summons

THE High Court has been told that Sean Quinn had been refusing to open the locked gates of his home in Co Cavan to personally accept service of a summons issued to have him declared bankrupt in the Republic.

The revelation came as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) yesterday took the first legal step to have Mr Quinn declared bankrupt in the Republic.

Mr Justice Michael Peart was told Mr Quinn had refused to open the gates of his home at Ballyconnell to accept service of a bankruptcy summons on December 16.

Barrister Aillil O’Reilly said solicitors on both sides of the border had told IBRC they had no instructions from Mr Quinn to accept a bankruptcy summons on his behalf and had declined to do so.

He said a summons server on behalf of IBRC had attended at Mr Quinn’s home in Ballyconnell several times and had been refused admission at the gated Quinn homestead after ringing the entrance bell.

Mr O’Reilly said the summons server had observed movement and lights in and around the home despite having received no answer to pushing the bell button on the gate.

On one occasion he had seen a man he believed to be Mr Quinn walking around his car outside the house as if waiting for the server to leave. Mr Quinn had later driven out of the gateway without the server having been able to serve the summons on him or gain entrance to his home.

Mr O’Reilly said that McCann Fitzgerald, solicitors for IBRC, had received a letter from Mr Quinn’s legal representatives in the North indicating that in their view any attempt to serve a summons on Mr Quinn there would be an abuse of process and a contempt of court.

This week, the North’s High Court heard an application in Belfast by IBRC asking the court to annul an earlier adjudication order of bankruptcy there and had adjourned its consideration of the matter.

Mr O’Reilly, who was instructed by Michael Murphy, solicitor with McCann Fitzgerald, told Judge Peart there was legal authority for IBRC to proceed with an application for bankruptcy against Mr Quinn in the Republic.

He said IBRC had indicated its intention to hold off taking any further step in the process pending the outcome of the application in the North but required to have Mr Quinn served with its bankruptcy summons.

Judge Peart directed service of the summons on Mr Quinn by hand delivery of it, together with a copy of his order, into the letterbox “of the debtor’s premises” at Ballyconnell.

He directed similar service on Daniel Murphy Solicitors, Harcourt St, Dublin, and Dermott McEvoy, solicitor with Messrs Eversheds, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, legal representatives of Mr Quinn.