The High Court ordered FC to repay €900,009.08, with interest from 4 November 2009, after finding that eight transfers from his aunt MC’s account were made when she lacked capacity for complex financial decisions and resulted from undue influence. The court also ordered the return of machinery bought with her funds and vacant possession of her Wexford property.
In a judgment delivered on 2 May 2013, Mr Justice Feeney found that MC had been vulnerable and dependent on FC for care and daily support. He concluded that from the start of 2008 she could not make complex financial decisions. The eight transfers, made between May 2008 and April 2009, totalled €937,800. The judge set them aside for lack of capacity, undue influence and improvidence.
FC said MC had agreed to transfer the money to him, including to support his future and an agricultural machinery business. The judge rejected that account, finding that the alleged agreement was too uncertain to be enforceable and that FC had not shown the transfers were the free exercise of MC’s will. The court also found that she received no independent legal or financial advice about the transfers.
The judge found that €900,009.08 of the withdrawn funds had produced no benefit for MC, after allowing for estimated expenditure that benefited her and other adjustments. He declared that amount to be her property and entered judgment against FC, with interest from the date she was made a ward of court. The precise accounting for all funds remained subject to orders for accounts and inquiries.
The court declared that 29 identified items of machinery, valued at €322,560, were held on trust for MC and ordered the defendants to deliver them and their title and registration documents to the plaintiffs. It declined to order an account of income from the machinery, considering the costs and the business’s loss-making position. The defendants were also ordered to account for funds received and to return the machinery; the plaintiffs were entitled to damages for any loss in its value on sale, with calculation and procedure left for further hearing.
The judgment further ordered FC to take the necessary steps to convey a Wexford site to the plaintiffs. It ordered him to give vacant possession of MC’s Wexford home and lands, and declared that funds in a Bank of Ireland account in his name belonged to MC and should be lodged in court. FC’s counterclaim was rejected. The judge left any further injunctive and consequential orders for later consideration.