The High Court has ruled that personal guarantees given by Dominick Mullee and Siobhan Mullee for two ACC Bank loans were valid and enforceable for sums correctly due. The ruling resolved a dispute over the bank’s claim in the debtors’ proposed arrangements; it did not establish that the full amount claimed was owed.
The bank sought to prove a debt of €1,421,536.86. The dispute concerned guarantees linked to 2007 and 2008 facilities made to Mullee Property Limited, of which the debtors were directors. The 2007 facility was for €2.429 million. The 2008 facility was for €141,750.
The debtors argued that the guarantees were unenforceable because they were signed after the money had been advanced, leaving no consideration for the promises. The bank submitted that the facility letters made the directors’ guarantees part of the agreed security for the loans.
Justice Gilligan said the guarantees had been signed before the actual drawdown of the funds. The loan start dates were later than the dates the guarantees were executed, a point clarified after the parties’ submissions. The court concluded that each facility letter required joint and several guarantees and indemnities from the company’s directors, and that the guarantees were given in fulfilment of those terms.
The judge found that the guarantees were valid and enforceable for whatever sums were correctly due under them. The judgment adjudicated the bank’s claim in the arrangements on that guarantee issue; it did not specify the sum correctly due.
The judgment also addressed earlier facilities from 2005 and 2006. ACC Bank said it could not locate the alleged guarantees for those loans, while the debtors said they did not believe they had signed them. The court said the bank bore the burden of proving those guarantees and could not reach a conclusion on whether they had been signed. It said that issue was not relevant to the 2007 and 2008 guarantees before it.