The High Court has set aside an order renewing Allied Irish Banks’ summary summons against the personal representatives of Agnes Theresa Boyd’s estate, finding that the bank had not shown special circumstances to justify renewal.
The summons, issued against Ms Boyd in August 2017, sought €967,129.14 over loan facilities said to have funded the purchase and renovation of a house in Castle Gardens, Kilkenny. It was never served. Ms Boyd died in April 2018. The court heard the defendants’ application under Order 8, rule 2 to set aside a renewal granted ex parte in April 2021. The hearing took place in July 2022.
Mr Justice Heslin said the application required a fresh, full consideration of whether renewal was justified. The bank relied on four circumstances in its 2021 application: a pause while a complaint was considered by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, unsuccessful mediation, Covid-19 restrictions and the need to amend the summons following a Supreme Court ruling.
The judge found that the bank’s own June 2018 letter had said proceedings would not be stayed until a full and final settlement was reached. He also noted that the bank had instructed its solicitors to consider continuing the original proceedings or issuing fresh ones, but ultimately chose by the end of 2019 to abandon the 2017 case and pursue new proceedings. The Covid-related difficulties cited by the bank concerned those later proceedings, the court said, not the abandoned summons before it.
The original summons expired in August 2018. The bank did not seek renewal until April 2021, about two years and eight months later. The judge described this as an extreme delay and concluded that none of the four stated grounds, alone or together, amounted to special circumstances.
The judgment did not decide the merits of the underlying debt claim. It recorded that Ms Boyd’s 2017 complaint raised allegations about the bank’s lending practices and her treatment as an elderly customer, and that she disputed the proceedings and reserved her defences. The judge said the court could not assume there was no possible bona fide defence. He also found no evidence that the defendants had deliberately frustrated service.
Mr Justice Heslin set aside the April 2021 renewal order. He said the parties should correspond promptly about the appropriate form of order, particularly costs. His preliminary view was that costs should follow the event, meaning the defendants’ successful motion, and he directed that short written submissions be filed within two weeks if the parties could not agree.