The High Court granted Allied Irish Banks plc judgment for €80,220.15 against Monkstown Bay Marina Company Ltd and its two named guarantors after rejecting their claim that the bank had agreed to accept monthly payments of €1,000.
In a judgment delivered on 12 December 2018, Mr Justice Robert Eagar said the defendants had not established a defence that required the case to proceed to a plenary hearing. The ruling arose from AIB’s application for summary judgment on lending to the company and guarantees given by James O’Brien and Peter De Roberts.
AIB had offered the company a €89,467 facility in March 2013, which renewed an earlier facility. The company accepted and drew down the funds. A separate overdraft facility, with a €10,000 limit, had been approved in 2010. The bank’s claim also included €14,021.31 on a current account that had exceeded its limit.
O’Brien, who described himself as a company director and guarantor, said the bank agreed around November 2014 to modify the loan so it would be serviced by payments of €1,000 a month. He said the company had met those revised obligations. The judgment records that €1,000 monthly payments were made from 23 December 2014 to 20 March 2015.
AIB disputed that any modification had been agreed. Its senior manager said the company had proposed monthly payments in October 2014, but any agreement was subject to Credit Committee approval and the provision of information about the company’s accounts. The bank said that information was not provided, and that it wrote to the guarantors in December 2014 about the outstanding queries and possible restructuring.
The judge noted that O’Brien did not identify a bank official involved in the alleged agreement, give a specific date for it, or produce correspondence or other documentation supporting it. Applying the summary judgment test, the court concluded the defendants had not asserted a defence sufficient to send the proceedings to a plenary hearing.
The judgment states that the amount owed at the date of judgment was €80,220.15, taking account of part repayments, and that AIB was entitled to judgment for that sum. The supplied judgment extract does not state any further terms of an order.