The Supreme Court has refused an application by Killybegs fisherman Brian Murray to set aside a €132,355.63 judgment obtained by Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank, finding that the bank's later transfer of the claim did not undermine the judgment against him.
Mr Murray had argued that the bank should have disclosed that, two days before his Supreme Court appeal was heard in December 2024, it agreed to transfer a loan portfolio ultimately to Pepper Finance Corporation (Ireland) DAC. The transaction completed in April 2025, before the Supreme Court delivered its original appeal judgment in June.
Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell said the bank had handled aspects of the matter "clumsily and worse" and described its failure to tell the court about the proposed transaction as discourteous and imprudent. However, the court rejected Mr Murray's argument that this amounted to an abuse of process or justified reopening the final judgment.
The underlying case arose from advances made in 2003 and 2007. The High Court had found that the bank failed to prove Mr Murray signed or authorised the relevant loan documents. It nevertheless found that money was paid into a joint account from which he benefited and entered judgment for €132,355.63 on the basis of unjust enrichment. That ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal and, by majority, by the Supreme Court in 2025.
The latest judgment held that the assignment to Pepper did not extinguish the claim or change the issue decided on appeal. Whether the bank or Pepper was ultimately entitled to enforce it was a question of assignment, not liability.
The court also recorded an undertaking that the separate judgments against Mr and Mrs Murray could not both be enforced in full without credit for sums recovered from the other. It refused both the abuse-of-process application and permission to bring a further motion under Supreme Court Practice Direction SC 17. The Chief Justice proposed awarding the bank 50% of its Supreme Court appeal costs, with no order as to the costs of the latest motion.