By Ruth Mercer
The High Court has refused to order Elizabeth Curry to lodge more than €100,000 in pension proceeds pending trial, but has allowed a contractual claim brought by her former partner Martin Tucker to continue.
The dispute arises from a €260,000 mortgage taken out jointly in 2003 over a Dublin property. Tucker and Curry were then life partners. Curry was the sole beneficiary of two pension policies taken out at the same time.
The mortgage later transferred to Havbell DAC. After arrears arose, possession proceedings followed and a final possession order was affirmed by the High Court in January 2020. Curry had already left the property, while Tucker continued litigating over the mortgage.
Tucker issued the present proceedings in June 2021. He claims Curry was contractually required to use pension proceeds she drew down in 2019 to reduce the mortgage debt.
Initially, Mr Justice Conor Dignam found the mortgage documents themselves did not clearly impose that obligation. However, further documents later produced from Curry's solicitor's file included a signed undertaking dated the same day as the 2003 loan offer.
In that undertaking, Curry agreed to repay sums outstanding on the loan from the lump sums available under the two identified pension policies and not to dispose of those interests pending repayment.
The judge held that this gave Tucker a strong case that Curry was contractually obliged to apply the pension money towards the loan and that the obligation may have been enforceable by Tucker as co-borrower.
That did not entitle him to an injunction. The court found that he waited almost a year after issuing proceedings before seeking interlocutory relief, despite having threatened an injunction before litigation began. It also found that damages would be an adequate remedy.
The injunction was therefore refused. Curry's separate application to strike out the claim was also refused. The ruling leaves the core contractual dispute for trial and does not decide whether Tucker will ultimately recover any money.