IRBC begins bankruptcy case against Sean Quinn

The State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC and formerly Anglo Irish Bank) today took the first legal step in the High Court in Dublin to have Sean Quinn declared a bankrupt in the Republic.

Mr Justice Michael Peart was told that Mr Quinn had been refusing to open the locked gates of his home at Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, to personally accept service of a bankruptcy summons issued by IBRC on Friday last, December 16.

Barrister Aillil O’Reilly said that 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 that a summons server on behalf of IBRC had attended at Mr Quinn’s home in Ballyconnell on several occasions 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 Quinn 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 Sean Quinn walking around his car outside the house as if waiting for the summons 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 in the North would be an abuse of process and a contempt of the North's High Court.

This week, the North's High Court had 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 Mc Cann 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 nevertheless 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 said he was satisfied there would be no abuse of process in granting IBRC’s application.

He directed service of the bankruptcy 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.

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

Following the hearing, Mr Michael Murphy, of McCann Fitzgerald, solicitors for IBRC, said service of the summons was the first step in the process of applying for an adjudication of bankruptcy against Mr Quinn in the Irish court’s jurisdiction.

He said IBRC was aware the High Court in the North was currently considering whether to annul an adjudication order there and would not proceed further here until the outcome of those proceedings.