The High Court has adjudicated Brendan Walsh bankrupt on a petition brought by Michael Gladney, the Collector General, after finding that the debtor had not established a defence to the petition.
In a judgment delivered on 30 September 2021, Mr Justice Humphreys said the petition, filed in April 2017, alleged indebtedness of €249,135.85 and relied on failure to pay following a bankruptcy summons. The petition was adjourned 29 times before being heard on 26 July 2021.
The judge refused the debtor’s request to bring a motion in the Bankruptcy List to set aside earlier judgments, particularly a 2015 judgment. He said challenges to underlying judgments had to be made in the relevant court list and that the bankruptcy hearing was not the proper forum for such an application.
The judgment recounts several earlier proceedings and debts. The Revenue accepted that €13,501.52 covered by a 2005 judgment should not have been included in a 2015 judgment. The judge found the error did not defeat the petition: even after that amount was excluded, he said, larger sums remained due under later judgments. He also rejected challenges concerning notice of the bankruptcy summons, the particulars and amounts of judgments relied on, sums that had appeared in earlier proceedings that were not progressed, and an alleged agreement not to enforce a 2016 judgment.
The debtor said he had not received notice at his preferred work address. The judge found notice sent by ordinary post to his residential address was valid. He also said the Collector General could rely on judgments not particularised in the bankruptcy summons, applying the authorities cited in the judgment.
The judge said a debtor opposing a bankruptcy petition had to establish a defence at the petition hearing, rather than merely raise an arguable one. He found no factual defence had been established and decided the legal arguments against the debtor. He also considered whether there was a real alternative to bankruptcy under section 14 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988 and concluded there was none. The petition was granted, and the court ordered that Walsh be adjudicated bankrupt.