US judge directs Gayle Killilea Dunne, Nama to resolve dispute

Bankruptcy court refuses to grant developer’s wife protection

A US judge has ordered Gayle Killilea Dunne, wife of bankrupt developer Seán Dunne, and the National Asset Management Agency to meet to attempt to resolve a dispute over the discovery of information from a bank and law firm she has used.

Judge Alan Shiff directed the two sides to find a way of resolving a dispute at a conference over Nama subpoenaing Connecticut law firm Heagney, Lennon & Slane, which Ms Killilea Dunne used for property deals in the US, and People's United Bank to hand over information.

The bankruptcy judge refused a request from Ms Killilea Dunne to issue a protective court order limiting the documents sought by Nama under third-party subpoenas to information that was only relevant to her husband in the State agency’s legal challenge against the developer.

He said that it was “premature” for Ms Killilea Dunne and her firm, Mountbrook USA, to seek the protective order when the parties had not held a conference to resolve their discovery dispute.

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Ms Killilea Dunne had failed to submit to the court a second log showing a list of documents she claims are privileged and should not be released or to hand over unaffected documents to Nama, the judge said.

Judge Shiff scheduled a court hearing for August 27th to find out if they had resolved their differences. He told them to be prepared to offer other discovery procedures if there was no resolution by then.

Simon Carswell

Simon Carswell

Simon Carswell is News Editor of The Irish Times