The High Court found that Gerard Markey breached his duties while managing his late father’s pub and ordered him to indemnify the estate for €31,164.97 paid to settle nursing home, healthcare and pharmacy accounts. The court also awarded interest on specified sums. It did not decide who should bear the costs of the proceedings, reserving that issue for a further hearing.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Herbert on 24 January 2006, concerned the estate of Philip Markey, who died in February 2002. His will left the Stray Inn, in Co Kildare, to Gerard, subject to a payment to the estate, and left land and the residue of the estate to his daughter, Mary.
Gerard had managed the pub after his father entered Curragh Lawn Nursing Home in November 1995. The judge found that he acted as his father’s agent and had agreed to use the business’s profits to pay the nursing home charges as they fell due. Gerard was not personally obliged to pay those charges from his own resources, the court said.
The judge found, however, that Gerard spent business income on non-essential works and staffing while nursing home fees went unpaid. The judgment described the management arrangement as fiduciary and found that Gerard had applied money that should have gone towards his father’s care to other purposes, including his own immediate and prospective benefit. The court also found that Philip did not know the fees were in arrears.
The estate had paid €31,164.97 to Curragh Lawn Nursing Home, Beechfield Healthcare Limited and pharmacist Bernard Berney with the court’s consent in 2004. The judge held that Gerard had to indemnify the estate and its administrator for that amount. He also found that the special mattress supplied for Philip’s care and the pharmacy account were expenses that should have been met from the pub’s income.
A separate issue concerned the €190,460.71 Gerard paid to the estate in December 2003 under the will’s provision for the pub. The court found that payment was due by 23 October 2003, after an administrator could give an effective receipt. It directed interest at 8% on the portion needed to pay general legacies, from 1 March to 10 December 2003. Interest was also ordered on €31,164.97 from 23 October 2003, or the later borrowing date, through 10 December 2003, at the rate charged on the estate’s borrowing.
The court rejected Gerard’s claim that the estate or Mary had to reimburse him for €14,916.16 outstanding to A.C.C. Bank at his father’s death. Gerard accepted that the claim was not valid. The judgment concluded by stating that the parties would be heard on costs and expenses, including reserved costs.