The High Court has ordered Joseph and Clara McCabe to answer interrogatories in their dispute with Irish Life Insurance plc and Danske Bank A/S, trading as National Irish Bank. Their affidavits must be served within 21 days after the order is perfected. The judgment does not determine whether benefits are payable under the policy or whether it was validly avoided.
The case concerns a life assurance policy taken out in or about November 2005, under which Maria McCabe, who later died, was one of the lives assured. The plaintiffs claim entitlement to benefits following her death on 26 August 2009. The defendants plead that she failed to disclose material information about her medical history and say the policy was voidable for non-disclosure and that they avoided it.
The defendants’ motion, dated 28 January 2016, sought an order requiring the plaintiffs to answer interrogatories either by affidavit or through oral examination. Alternatively, they asked the court to dismiss the action for want of prosecution, alleging non-compliance with an earlier order to answer questions.
The Court of Appeal had given the defendants leave to deliver interrogatories in November 2015. The plaintiffs later supplied affidavits purporting to answer them. The defendants argued that those answers were insufficient, noting that Joseph McCabe said he had no direct knowledge of answers to five questions and Clara McCabe said she had no direct knowledge of four. The judgment records that the defendants received the deceased’s GP medical file by registered post in October 2016. The plaintiffs’ counsel said reviewing the medical notes would be traumatic for them.
Justice Eagar said the plaintiffs’ solicitors could identify the issues raised by the questions by reading the GP’s report and then discuss them with the plaintiffs so they could swear affidavits. He granted the order requiring answers to the interrogatories by affidavit or oral examination. The judgment does not record a ruling on the defendants’ alternative request to dismiss the action, and it makes no finding on the alleged non-disclosure or the insurance claim itself.