The High Court has sent Havbell Limited’s claim for €967,275.63 against James Walsh (Auto Electrical) Limited to a plenary hearing, declining the company’s application for final judgment without a full hearing.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Max Barrett on 10 October 2017, concerned an application to overturn an order of the Master granting Havbell liberty to enter final judgment. The judge said the plaintiff had to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that it was entitled to the judgment sought.
Havbell relied on a deed of transfer to support its claim that it had acquired rights under the loan agreement from Permanent TSB. But the deed referred to a Mortgage Sale Agreement and its definitions, which had not been provided to the court. The judge said the evidence did not explain sufficiently how the deed’s terms transferred the particular rights Havbell sought to enforce against the defendant.
The court noted that a schedule referenced by the deed listed the loan agreement now being sued upon. However, the judge said that alone did not resolve the questions raised by the deed’s wording and the missing agreement. Disputes about a claimant’s entitlement to sue can amount to an arguable defence, the judgment said, and the threshold for sending a matter to a plenary hearing is low.
The defendant raised several other complaints. The judge said an argument that the Master should have adjourned to allow newly appointed lawyers to prepare had been overtaken by the time taken for the case to reach the High Court. He found no difficulty with the grounding affidavit having been sworn by an employee of Capita Asset Services, Havbell’s loan-management agent, and said guarantees and security arrangements mentioned in the loan agreement were not conditions precedent to liability.
The judge also considered complaints about the demand letter, submissions made before the Master, and a separate challenge to the transfer. Those points did not displace the central evidential issue. The court did not decide the underlying debt at a plenary hearing in this judgment; it refused summary judgment and ordered that the matter proceed to plenary hearing.