The High Court has declined to recognise a Northern Ireland bankruptcy order against Eamon Mulligan, finding that his centre of main interests was in Ireland when that order was made in July 2010. The court did not adjudicate him bankrupt in Ireland or decide what further steps should follow in Emo Oil Limited’s petition; it said it would hear the parties further on that question.
Emo Oil’s petition arose from a High Court judgment dated 10 February 2009, which awarded the company €235,001.68 against Mulligan, trading as Mulligan Oils, plus costs to be assessed. A bankruptcy summons was issued on 18 May 2009 and served on 30 July. The petition was filed on 21 October 2009.
The petition was adjourned several times while the parties discussed repayment. The judgment records offers of monthly payments of €2,000 and later €3,000, and Mulligan’s indication that he was trying to refinance. In July 2010, his solicitors told the court he had been adjudicated bankrupt in Northern Ireland on 7 July.
The Irish court first considered whether the earlier steps in the Irish petition meant insolvency proceedings had already been opened here under the EU Insolvency Regulation. Emo Oil argued that they had. The judge rejected that submission: unlike company winding-up proceedings, an individual’s property did not vest in the Official Assignee before adjudication. The adjournments had not divested Mulligan of his assets, so they did not amount to opening proceedings under the Regulation.
The court then considered where Mulligan’s centre of main interests was when the Northern Ireland order was made. Mulligan said he had lived in Northern Ireland since 2002 and relied on residency documents presented there, as well as a Northern Ireland taxi licence. He also said his fuel distribution business in Dundalk had ceased operating in 2010.
The petitioner’s evidence pointed to Irish business, property and tax records. Correspondence supplied by Mulligan’s solicitors described a house in Tateetra, County Louth, as the family home, gave Irish addresses in business accounts and tax returns, and referred to property interests in Dundalk and Tateetra. The judge said that information was difficult to reconcile with Mulligan’s account of long-term residence in Northern Ireland.
Applying the Regulation’s test of where a debtor regularly administers his interests, the judge concluded that a third party would have regarded Mulligan’s centre of main interests as being in Ireland in July 2010. On that basis, the court declined to recognise the Northern Ireland adjudication. The judgment ended by directing that the parties be heard further on the next steps in the Irish proceedings.