The High Court has granted summary judgment to Padraig O’Connell and Pat McGahern for €650,000 in their loan claim against John Moriarty, finding the defendant’s defences could be decided within the summary application.
Mr Justice Charles Meenan delivered the judgment on 30 June 2022. The plaintiffs said the amount was due under a loan agreement dated 15 December 2006. The agreement made €300,000 available for investment in property projects, required repayment by 1 September 2007 and set interest at 40% a year. It also provided alternative repayment options linked to a Prague option and a Bulgarian ski site project.
The loan was not repaid. In correspondence, Moriarty referred to the €300,000 loan as overdue and said the gross amount due was €650,000. In a 2016 email, he wrote: “I owe you and Pat the money, and that has not changed.” The judge treated that email as a written and signed acknowledgment of the debt for the purposes of the Statute of Limitations Act, 1957, as amended. He said the proceedings would have been statute-barred without the acknowledgment.
Moriarty argued that the claim was statute-barred, that the agreement did not require repayment in money, that delay should prevent the plaintiffs from continuing, and that the claimed sum had not been adequately particularised. The judge rejected those defences. He found the agreement required repayment in money, although it offered other repayment options that Moriarty had not exercised. He also found no identifiable prejudice from the plaintiffs’ delay and accepted that the claimed sum was sufficiently particularised, noting the plaintiffs’ evidence that they had waived additional interest and that Moriarty had himself referred to €650,000.
The judge concluded that a plenary hearing was unnecessary and would increase costs and delay. He held that the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment for €650,000. On costs, his initial view was that the successful plaintiffs should receive them, but he allowed Moriarty to contest that view through short written submissions by 14 July 2022. The matter was listed for 21 July 2022 to make final orders. The judgment therefore records the decision on the claim and an initial view on costs, with final orders on costs still to follow.