High Court approves Quinn fees

The High Court has approved more than €1.7m in fees incurred by the joint administrators of Quinn Insurance Ltd for the first three months of this year.

The President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns was also informed that the joint administrators will shortly make a number of applications to the court as part of the process of selling Quinn insurance Ltd to a joint venture involving Anglo Irish Bank and US insurance giant Liberty Mutual.

Today, Mr Justice Kearns approved fees sought by the joint administrators Michael McAteer and Paul McCann, of Grant Thornton and their lawyers McCann Fitzgerald after being supplied with details including the work carried out by the firm partners and its staff in the administration of Quinn Insurance.

The report contained the amount of staff working in the administration, the number of hours each individual worked, and their hourly charge rates. The court heard that the hourly rates are the standard hourly rates charged by the firm.

In an affidavit to the court Mr McCann said that "a significant number," of Grant Thornton's staff broken into various teams, including a sales process team, tax team, management and operation team, actuarial team, were engaged in the administration of the company.

He added that during the three months of 2011 Quinn was invoiced on the same basis as had been approved by the High Court since the joint administrators were appointed to run the insurer since it was placed in administration in March 2010 by the Financial Regulator.

In figures put before the court the joint administrators fees, company support professional fees and outlay were €509,502 for January, €629,161 for February and €576,123 for March. In addition the figures reveal that administrator's fees for April are €578,394.

Yesterday, Bernard Dunleavy Bl for the joint administrators said that information would be presented to the court at a later date. It is hoped that the sale process will be finalised by August-September next.

Counsel said that one of those applications will be to seek approval for the appointment of auditors to the company.