The Court of Appeal has dismissed Gary Lennon’s appeal against a High Court judgment ordering him to repay €153,803.63 in fees drawn from the liquidations of Beauty Holdings Limited and Hairspray Wholesalers Limited. The appeal court found that the independent expert’s assessment, together with the fees Lennon acknowledged receiving, made the overpayment readily calculable.
Lennon had been appointed liquidator of both companies when they entered members’ voluntary liquidation in 2013. After they were found to be insolvent, their liquidations were converted to creditors’ voluntary liquidations in May 2014, and Jim Luby took over as liquidator.
Luby disputed the fees Lennon had charged. Under a 2017 agreement, the parties appointed chartered accountant Jim Stafford as an independent expert to assess the reasonable fees and whether Lennon’s work, including VAT recalculations, was appropriate. Stafford’s report proposed fees of €10,000 to €15,000 plus VAT for each liquidation, excluding VAT recalculation work. It separately assessed reasonable fees for that work at €43,779.40 for Beauty and €35,441 for Hairspray.
Luby calculated that Lennon should repay €122,126.21 for Beauty and €31,677.42 for Hairspray. Lennon challenged the report, arguing that Stafford had not assessed all of his work, had not received relevant records and had not made a final determination of the amount to be repaid. The High Court granted judgment to Luby for those sums in May 2019.
The Court of Appeal said the report did not itself state a repayment amount, and the agreement had not expressly required the expert to calculate one. But the court found Stafford had assessed reasonable fees for the liquidation work and VAT recalculations; the figures could be combined and compared with the fees Lennon acknowledged receiving. Luby had allowed Lennon the maximum fee in Stafford’s €10,000-to-€15,000 range. The court said Lennon did not dispute Luby’s calculation and had no defence to the proceedings under the agreement, which provided for consent to judgment if repayment was not made within 60 days of the determination.
The appeal was dismissed. The court said Luby was entitled to recover the costs of the appeal and High Court proceedings, subject to any submissions Lennon might make within 14 days of the judgment. The judgment was delivered on 4 November 2020.