Lawyers for former Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) boss Michael Fingleton are to apply for leave to bring another appeal over a refusal to halt a case against him for alleged negligent mismanagement of the society.
Mr Justice Denis McDonald was told on Friday the Fingleton side wants to bring an appeal to the Supreme Court over last May's Court of Appeal (CoA) decision refusing to halt the trial.
The challenge had been sought due to the passage of time and because of severe ill health of Mr Fingleton (85) which would create a real or substantial risk of an unfair trial or an unjust result.
The case had been initiated in 2012 by the liquidators of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) who alleged, among various claims, that INBS's €6 billion losses from 2008-2010 arose from development loans made when Mr Fingleton was CEO and when he had excessive control over the society’s business. Mr Fingleton denied the claims.
He brought a High Court challenge seeking to stop the case on health grounds. Mr Fingleton suffered a severe stroke in May 2018 leaving him physically and cognitively incapacitated, the court heard.
Challenge rejected
The High Court rejected the challenge in 2021 and he appealed. By 2022, Mr Fingleton's wife Eileen and his son Michael junior were added as defendants in a representative capacity to the case.
That appeal heard the IBRC liquidators would now be limiting their claim to damages arising from five series of loans spanning 2006 to 2009.
Following the CoA's decision to refuse to halt the case, it returned before Mr Justice McDonald on a number of occasions to deal with the outcome of the appeal and other preliminary matters.
On Friday, the judge was told by Lyndon MacCann SC, for IRBC, and Padraic Lyons SC, for the Fingletons, that due to intended application by the defendants for leave to appeal the CoA decision to the Supreme Court, the hearing of the High Court action should be adjourned.
An application is also to be made by the defendants to strike out certain parts of the claim which do not survive the decision of the appeal court.
Mr Justice McDonald agreed with counsel that if the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal there was unlikely to be a decision before the beginning of next year. In those circumstances he agreed to fix the hearing provisionally for March of next year.
He also noted it should take around three or four months to hear rather than the original six months in light of the fact that the case had become more focused following the CoA decision.
He also granted IRBC an order providing for the issuing of a request to examine former INBS head of internal audit, Killian McMahon in the US where he now lives. IBRC says he is one of a number of important witnesses in the case.
