The High Court has ordered Ulster Bank Ireland Limited to make discovery of documents sought by The White Country Inn, a partnership, in its claim against the bank and Shauna Crowley. The order concerns allegations about partnership loans and proceeds connected with a life assurance policy. It does not decide whether those allegations are true or whether the disputed settlement proceeds belong to the partnership.
The judgment, delivered electronically by Mr Justice Barr on 13 November 2020, concerns a discovery application in ongoing proceedings. The partnership seeks accounts and inquiries into sums it says are owed to it. It alleges that loan facility letters made in its name were not authorised or known to it, and that a signature attributed to Eileen Geraghty on several documents was forged. It also claims that proceeds from separate litigation over an Aviva policy should have benefited the partnership.
Crowley’s pleaded response was that the policy, taken out on her life in October 2000, expired in October 2010. She said she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in December 2011 and did not claim under the expired policy. She later sued Ulster Bank and Aviva, alleging they had failed to advise her that she could renew it without medical underwriting. Those proceedings were settled, but she did not disclose the settlement terms, pleading that they were confidential. These are parties’ pleaded positions, not findings in the discovery judgment.
The court directed the bank to make discovery of Categories 1(a) to 1(f), covering documents relating to the policy and associated litigation, and Categories 2(b) to 2(d), concerning the loan facilities. The bank had already agreed to discover Category 2(a) and Categories 3(a) and 3(b). The court also ordered discovery of Category 3(c), concerning the bank’s internal guidelines or rules on partnership customers and authority to act for a partnership, and Category 4, concerning dealings between Crowley and the bank during the requested period.
For Category 1(g), the settlement agreement, the bank must provide a list of the documents and preserve them. The trial judge is to decide later whether they should be produced, if that judge finds the policy litigation was so closely connected with the expired policy that its proceeds were partnership assets.
The bank must make discovery on oath of the documents covered by the order. The parties may agree the deadline for its affidavit. They may also make written submissions within two weeks on the terms of the final order, costs and related matters. The judgment does not determine the underlying claims or the eventual costs order.