Judge rules against Quinns on Anglo disclosure

Members of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn’s family are not entitled to better disclosure of documents and materials by a bank they are suing over the alleged unlawful issuing of €2.3 billion in loans to family companies, a High Court judge has ruled.

The Quinns had claimed the system of revealing the material, including the contents of phone calls to the former Anglo Irish Bank, was deficient. This meant they could have no confidence in the overall process of disclosure being provided in advance of their legal action, they said.

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), Anglo’s successor, disputed their claims, saying the cost of going through material for the purpose of discovery in advance of the case was already €1.55 million.

Mr Quinn’s wife, Patricia, and the couple’s five children are suing IBRC and its special liquidator, Kieran Wallace. They allege that Anglo unlawfully issued the loans during 2007 and 2008. Mr Quinn and former senior Quinn Group executives Dara O’Reilly and Liam McCaffrey are third parties in the case.

On Thursday, Ms Justice Caroline Costello ruled that IBRC had made “a conscientious attempt” to comply with a July 2012 High Court order for full discovery of materials.

No wilful refusal

While there were errors and omissions, IBRC had corrected those, Ms Justice Costello said, and it was very far from being the case that the bank was endeavouring to avoid giving discovery or that there was a wilful refusal to provide information.

Karyn Harty, a solicitor for IBRC, stated that it had cost €600,000 alone to retrieve and review 18,000 recordings and that it would not be feasible to review some 2.1 million calls for a two-year period suggested by the Quinns, the judge said.