By Eoin Marsh
The High Court has allowed Everyday Finance DAC to enforce a possession order made almost 12 years earlier over 140 Morehampton Road in Donnybrook, Dublin.
The original order was granted to ACC Bank plc in 2014 after a four-day High Court hearing. It covered the Donnybrook property and another property in Athlone, which was sold in 2023. The Donnybrook property remained in issue.
Everyday Finance asked for permission to execute the old order and relied on a series of transfers of the relevant loans and mortgage. ACC Bank later became ACC Loan Management DAC. Its interests were transferred to Rabobank in 2019, then to Pepper Finance Corporation (Ireland) DAC and ultimately to Everyday Finance.
Niall Quinn opposed the application. His lawyers argued, among other things, that the lender had not adequately proved every transfer of both the debt and security and that the long delay should prevent enforcement.
Mr Justice Liam Kennedy rejected those arguments. He found on the largely unchallenged affidavit and documentary evidence that Everyday Finance had proved, on the balance of probabilities, that it owned both the loans and mortgage and was entitled to the benefit of the 2014 possession order.
The court then considered the lengthy delay. Quinn had appealed the 2014 order but did not progress that appeal, which was eventually struck out. The Supreme Court refused leave to appeal in 2019. Separate proceedings brought by his estranged wife, Kathy Minnock, also affected the property until they were dismissed and a lis pendens removed in June 2023.
Kennedy J found that most of the delay was attributable to those unsuccessful proceedings, the pandemic and other matters outside the applicant's control. Quinn had meanwhile remained in occupation for more than a decade.
The court held that refusing enforcement would significantly prejudice Everyday Finance while there was no evidence of comparable prejudice to Quinn beyond the greater difficulty of finding alternative accommodation at his current age.
Everyday Finance was therefore granted liberty to enforce the 2014 order and was to be added as a plaintiff. The judge's provisional view was that it should also receive its costs.