The High Court has dismissed Patrick O’Riordan’s appeal against a disciplinary tribunal’s findings that solicitor Alexander Gibbons was not guilty of professional misconduct in four allegations arising from a Cape Verde property purchase. The court said Mr O’Riordan had not established that a solicitor-client relationship existed between them for that transaction. It made no order as to costs.
The allegations concerned misleading Mr O’Riordan about a contract’s terms, failing to complete the purchase and exposing him to substantial loss, dishonesty about the parties’ identities, and failing to safeguard client funds. The tribunal found Mr Gibbons not guilty on those four matters. Mr O’Riordan sought to overturn the findings.
In an affidavit, Mr O’Riordan said that in December 2005 he agreed to buy four apartments in a 16-apartment block for €350,000. He said the money was paid into the client account of Mr Gibbons’s practice and recorded in its client ledger, and that he understood Mr Gibbons would complete the purchase and secure title for him. He later said he learned the block’s price was €1 million, rather than the €1.4 million he had been told, and that €100,000 remained outstanding. He believed the money had not been paid despite funds being available, leaving the block in the developer’s name. These were his claims, not findings by the High Court.
Mr O’Riordan also argued that the tribunal’s decision was inconsistent with its findings in a separate complaint by Tony Murphy, who had agreed to buy half the apartments and whom the tribunal found to be Mr Gibbons’s client. The High Court said Mr Murphy had a longstanding professional relationship with Mr Gibbons, including work for his business and property transactions. It found that relationship differed from Mr O’Riordan’s more sporadic dealings with the solicitor, and noted that Mr O’Riordan was a trainee in Mr Gibbons’s practice in 2005.
The court considered the payment into the client account and Mr O’Riordan’s claim that Mr Gibbons took responsibility for the purchase. It concluded the evidence did not establish the solicitor-client relationship to the court’s satisfaction. The tribunal had found at least a business relationship between the parties, while saying its precise nature had not been established to the required standard. The High Court found no reason to disturb that assessment and dismissed the appeal.