The Court of Appeal reduced a summary judgment in favour of Bank of Ireland against Kieran Doyle from €7,743,348.47 to €7,005,283.47, crediting payments made by his co-borrowers. It rejected his other appeal grounds and did not send the case for a plenary hearing.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Edwards on 21 December 2022, concerned a €7.55 million loan facility advanced to Doyle and three co-borrowers trading as Greenhills Co-Ownership. The facility made the borrowers jointly and severally liable. The bank said the loan was not repaid as required and sought repayment from Doyle.
The High Court granted the bank summary judgment in July 2018. On appeal, Doyle argued that an agreement between the bank and the other borrowers either released him from liability or breached a joint venture agreement, with the bank inducing that breach. The Court of Appeal rejected those arguments. It found that the debt resolution agreement reserved the bank’s rights against Doyle and that he had not shown an arguable basis for implying into the joint venture agreement a term restricting the other borrowers’ dealings with their assets.
The court also rejected Doyle’s challenge to the refusal to cross-examine the bank’s affidavit witnesses. It held that the High Court judge could refuse cross-examination where notice was unreasonably late and the proposed questioning was not needed to resolve a material factual dispute. The judgment records that Doyle’s notice was served shortly before the hearing, and that his counsel apologised for the delay.
Doyle also argued that the loan claim was inadequately particularised. The Court of Appeal dismissed that ground, noting that the point had not been raised in the High Court and that Doyle had identified no meaningful prejudice. The bank had amended its summary summons during the appeal, but the court did not allow the late challenge to succeed.
The court found that the High Court judgment had failed to credit €270,000 paid by the co-borrowers between March and August 2017. It also took account of later payments, including €250,000 in November 2019 and €218,065 from the Greenhills site sale in December 2019. The court said Doyle was entitled to those credits, but that the error did not establish an arguable defence requiring a full rehearing.
It therefore allowed the appeal only to substitute the lower judgment amount. The court rejected Doyle’s challenge to the High Court costs award. The costs of the appeal remained to be decided after written submissions.