The High Court adjudicated Thomas Gerard Mullaney and Breege Mullaney bankrupt on 13 October 2021, granting separate petitions brought by Danske Bank A/S trading as Danske Bank. Judge Humphreys gave reasons for the orders in a judgment delivered on 27 October 2021.
The petitions followed summary judgments against the debtors: €239,095.20 in one proceeding and €69,061.66 in another. The judgment says that, during personal insolvency applications, the debtors accepted debts of €1,599,330.84 in Mr Mullaney’s case and €1,538,564.29 in Mrs Mullaney’s case. A personal insolvency arrangement application was refused by Judge Enright on 22 July 2021.
The bankruptcy petitions were filed in July 2019 and adjourned over the following two years, primarily while the debtors sought to use the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. At the October 2021 hearing, the judge said the evidence met the statutory criteria for adjudication on a prima facie basis in each case. He also considered alternatives to bankruptcy unsuitable, particularly as the personal insolvency process had already been used unsuccessfully.
The judgment addressed five grounds advanced by Mr Mullaney. The judge said an alleged incorrect folio number concerned enforcement mechanics rather than whether the debt existed. He found the continuing plenary action was not a bar, given an undertaking to discontinue it and the admission of debt in the Circuit Court. A claimed failure to provide a “certificate of deed of redemption” had not been explained or developed in evidence sufficiently to establish a defence.
The judge said that the contention that the farm was a viable working dairy farm did not itself provide a defence to the petitions. He also found the debtors had not shown that the bank acted unlawfully by declining a proposed restructuring in 2010. The court’s order was to adjudicate each debtor bankrupt.