Con Egan and Teresa Egan have been granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in their case with Ulster Bank Ireland Limited. The determination was delivered on 22 July 2015 by Mr Justice Clarke, Mr Justice MacMenamin and Ms Justice Laffoy.
Ulster Bank claimed sums said to be owed under loans and guarantees. The High Court made three separate orders for summary judgment against the Egans, jointly and individually. The Court of Appeal heard all three appeals together, dismissed them and affirmed the orders.
The Egans said the case raised a matter of general public importance. They pointed to what they described as a divergence in High Court decisions on how the Bankers' Books Evidence Acts apply to bank debt claims. They also said the Court of Appeal misread Order 37 of the rules of the Superior Courts on the evidence needed for summary judgment.
Ulster Bank opposed leave. It said no matter of general public importance arose and pointed to the Court of Appeal's finding that the Egans had admitted the debt.
The Supreme Court said there were differences in the High Court's approach and that it was of general public importance to bring clarity to this area of law. It limited leave to two questions. The first is whether the Egans' admissions were enough on their own to justify summary judgment. The second is whether the evidence before the High Court was enough to prove the debt.
The court also criticised how the papers were filed. It said the Egans' grounds were repetitious. "A good point does not become better (and indeed may become worse) by being restated in four different ways," it said.