The High Court has adjourned part of a document inspection application in a debt claim of just over €4 million, giving Everyday Finance DAC time to provide further information about two deeds said to transfer the defendants’ loans and security from Allied Irish Banks.
Mr Justice Denis McDonald heard the application in summary summons proceedings brought by Everyday Finance against Enda Woods and Ciaran McNamara. The lender says it is entitled to recover the debt as successor to Allied Irish Banks. The defendants dispute both the lender’s title to sue and its entitlement to demand payment, relying on an alleged arrangement with the bank in 2010 that they say they honoured.
The application concerned documents referred to in the lender’s claim. The judge refused requests for a 2005 mortgage and a guarantee given by the defendants’ wives, saying the lender did not rely on either document in the debt proceedings and inspection was not shown to be necessary. The defendants had already received the relevant 2008 terms and conditions, so no order was needed for that document.
The judge said the defendants needed to see the relevant parts of the August 2018 Deed of Transfer and October 2018 Deed of Amendment to address the lender’s title to sue. He said the definitions used in the deeds’ operative provisions needed to be unredacted so those provisions could be understood. The opening words of Clause 1 of the transfer deed should also be disclosed unless the lender justified their redaction.
The lender had offered to provide a further copy and an affidavit confirming the definitions. The judge adjourned the requests concerning both deeds until 2pm the following Friday, with the affidavit due by 5.30pm the preceding day. He said his views concerned only this inspection application and did not determine arguments at the later hearing of the lender’s application for judgment. The defendants’ broader request to remove other redactions was refused as speculative on the material before him.
The judge made no order for statements of account covering 2005 to 2009 because those missing pages had not been sought through the required notice. He said he assumed they would now be provided. He also declined to order production of a power of attorney, while leaving the defendants free to raise its non-production at the judgment hearing.
A separate mediation motion had become moot after the lender agreed to mediation. The judge ordered the defendants’ costs of that motion to be costs in the cause, meaning they would be dealt with alongside the costs of the proceedings.