The High Court held that Nina Lynn Kessler could not reopen her liability for a 2006 loan in a summary judgment application, finding that the issues should have been raised in earlier proceedings. The plaintiff, National Asset Loan Management Limited, sought liberty to enter final judgment for €8,034,951.78, the balance it said remained after the sale of Kessler’s family home.
In the judgment delivered on 13 January 2015, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley said the rule in Henderson v Henderson applied. She found that the earlier proceedings had already determined the liability underlying the present claim and that it was reasonable to expect Kessler’s arguments to have been raised then. The judge said it was too late to do so in this application.
The loan was offered by Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) in December 2006 to Kessler and her husband, Thomas McFeely. It was an interest-only facility for €9,578,240, secured by mortgage deeds over their family home. The judgment records that interest fell into arrears and the capital was not repaid.
Kessler told the court she believed the loan would clear existing mortgages on the home and be repaid from equity in a development at Priory Hall, Donaghmede, being undertaken by her husband and a business partner. She said she had received no independent legal advice, had felt pressured to sign, and did not understand she faced personal liability. She also alleged that INBS had made representations about the loan’s purpose and repayment, and raised a potential conflict involving a solicitor acting for the plaintiff. These were her claims, not findings by the court.
The plaintiff disputed the substance of her arguments and submitted that prior court orders, estoppel and res judicata prevented her from raising them again. It also relied on section 101 of the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 concerning alleged undisclosed representations, and argued that the borrowers were jointly and severally liable.
Earlier proceedings included a 2010 Circuit Court declaration that €10,477,845.35 was well charged against the couple’s interests in the home; an appeal was dismissed in 2011. A possession order was made in 2012 and upheld on appeal. The plaintiff took possession and sold the property in May 2013 for €2.6 million, applying the proceeds to the debt.
Justice O’Malley also rejected the challenge based on lack of legal advice at this stage, noting that Kessler had been legally represented in the earlier cases and that there was no evidence she could not instruct her solicitors or had failed to understand the transaction. The supplied extract ends after the judge’s reasons and does not include the formal order or state expressly whether final judgment was entered.