The High Court has directed the liquidator of Doonbeg Investment Holding Company Limited to admit a €12,214,524 claim by Kiawah Doonbeg LLC to proof in the company’s liquidation.
In a judgment delivered on 16 February 2022, Ms Justice Butler said the notice party, Alfred Giuliano, trustee in bankruptcy of Kiawah, had established on the balance of probabilities that the sum was due. The ruling followed an application by company liquidator Tom Kavanagh under section 631 of the Companies Act 2014 for directions on whether to admit the debt.
The judge noted that the liquidator had made no decision on the claim and had not taken a position on whether it should be admitted. He raised questions about incomplete records, including whether funding came from Kiawah or related US companies, whether it was paid to the holding company or directly to Irish subsidiaries, and whether it was a loan or capital funding. No loan agreement was produced.
The court had earlier adjourned the application so creditors who had not initially been notified could be served. After service, none sought to appear or dispute the claim. The judge said the absence of opposition mattered in the circumstances, but the onus remained on Kiawah’s trustee to prove the debt.
The claim was supported by the company’s 2012 accounts and a directors’ statement of affairs, both of which recorded €12,214,524 as owed to Kiawah. The judge noted that two versions of the statement of affairs were in evidence: one recorded a much higher figure, while the other showed the amount now claimed. A former director also confirmed the lower amount in a 2019 letter. The evidence included records indicating that the debt had not been repaid between the end of 2012 and the company’s liquidation in March 2014.
Justice Butler said the company’s own records provided a starting point for assessing the debt, and the ambiguity in US company records was not enough to displace the conclusion that the sum was owed. She stressed that her conclusion did not rely on any purported admission in correspondence from the liquidator’s office. She also said the evidence was not contested, although the liquidator had identified general doubts and gaps.
The judgment directs admission of the claim to proof in the liquidation. It does not determine the amount of any eventual dividend or the distribution to creditors.