The High Court has rejected Gerry Ward’s challenge to its jurisdiction in Bank of Ireland’s claim over an alleged €776,024.34 debt, ruling that the bank’s affidavits could be admitted despite alleged defects in how they were sworn.
Mr Justice MacGrath said on 8 February 2019 that the court had jurisdiction to hear the parties’ applications. He found no reasonable grounds to refuse the affidavits and said the court could admit them under the Rules of the Superior Courts, including where they were not in perfect form.
The bank’s summary judgment application concerns two loan agreements dated 13 and 15 December 2006. The bank says the debt remains unpaid. Ward maintained that he had discharged it through a payment under the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 and that the matter had been privately settled. The judge said the material before him did not suggest that the bank had accepted the promissory note or any proposed settlement.
Ward also argued that defects in the bank employees’ affidavits deprived the court of jurisdiction. He objected that they did not state the deponents’ true places of abode or the time of day when they swore their affidavits, and alleged fraud and perjury. The judge relied on Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions, including Fennell v Ward, which addressed similar objections and the court’s power to receive affidavits despite formal irregularities.
The judgment did not grant the bank final judgment on its debt claim. Nor did it finally decide Ward’s request to cross-examine the bank’s witnesses, Seán Buckley and Jacinta Enright. The judge treated Ward’s application as one to extend the time for serving notice to cross-examine, since the time to do so as of right had expired.
The judge invited Ward to file a further affidavit setting out why he wanted to question the witnesses and extended the time for him to do so. He said he would hear submissions on that affidavit. The judgment therefore resolved the jurisdiction and affidavit-admissibility issues before the court, while leaving the cross-examination request for a later decision.