The High Court has awarded Bank of Ireland €135,980.91 against businessman Brendan Flynn over two loan agreements, and dismissed his counterclaim and a separate damages action against the bank and others.
In a judgment delivered on 12 April 2016, Mr Justice McDermott found that the bank was entitled to recover the outstanding loan amounts. The claims had been linked and heard together. The court also rejected Mr Flynn’s defence that his January 2007 loan agreement was obtained through duress or undue influence.
The bank said €11,144.20 remained due on a €25,000 motor loan advanced in December 2004, and €124,836.71 on a €113,000 loan advanced in January 2007. The second loan was intended to consolidate Mr Flynn’s personal overdraft and a debt connected with Governetz Commercial Ltd. The bank had demanded payment in 2010.
Mr Flynn alleged that bank officials threatened bankruptcy and the loss of his family home unless he signed the 2007 agreement. The judge preferred the evidence of bank officials Brian Murphy and Eleanor O’Connor, rejecting Mr Flynn’s account of meetings at a hotel and at the bank’s premises. The judgment cited records of discussions about a proposed loan and Mr Flynn’s efforts to secure investment for a French golf course development.
Mr Flynn also alleged that the bank’s handling of disputed mandates for Governetz Commercial Ltd. and Eagle Flag Ireland Ltd. helped cause the companies’ collapse and formed part of a wider fraud. The judgment recounts competing claims by Mr Flynn and fellow directors about share transfers, board meetings and authority to operate the companies’ accounts. The bank said it treated the dispute cautiously and could not operate an account while the mandate was contested.
The judge found no evidence that bank officials made a false loan application without Mr Flynn’s knowledge, joined in fraud, or participated in a criminal complaint against him. The court found that the bank acted with care in the circumstances of the companies’ dispute and that no relevant duty was owed to Mr Flynn concerning the operation of the company accounts. Allegations against bank solicitor Liam Lavelle were withdrawn during the hearing; the judge described them as unwarranted and unsustainable.
The judge also found that Mr Flynn had not established that he or Eagle Flag suffered compensable loss as a result of the bank’s actions. The court granted judgment to the bank for €135,980.91, dismissed Mr Flynn’s counterclaim, and dismissed his damages claim in the second proceedings.