Transfer of Drumm property blocked

ANGLO IRISH Bank has secured a temporary court injunction restraining the wife of its former chief executive David Drumm from transferring the couple’s former home in Co Dublin from her sole ownership back to the joint ownership of her husband and herself.

Anglo chief executive Mike Aynsley said he believed the intention of the re-transfer, proposed in a letter from Lorraine Drumm’s solicitors to the bank on Monday night, was to put the property at 20 Abington, Malahide, “beyond reach” of Anglo and the US Trustee in Bankruptcy following Mr Drumm’s unexpected decision last Thursday to file for bankruptcy in Massachusetts.

Lawyers for Mrs Drumm denied the claim and said the re-transfer was proposed in an effort to settle Anglo’s court case against the couple, in which Anglo claims the original May 2009 decision of Mr Drumm to transfer his half share of Abington into his wife’s name, leaving her the sole owner, was a fraud on creditors.

Solicitors for Mrs Drumm also wrote last Monday the proceedings over the May 2009 transfer should never have been taken on grounds Anglo had agreed not to seek to attach family assets of Mr Drumm. Anglo disputes Abington is a family home, as the Drumms have lived in Cape Cod for over a year.

At the Commercial Court yesterday, Mr Justice Peter Kelly said he was satisfied to grant an interim injunction restraining the proposed re-transfer and returned that matter to next Tuesday, when he will also deal with issues as to whether or when Anglo’s legal actions against the Drumms will proceed.

Earlier, Mr Sreenan said his side was very concerned about Mrs Drumm’s offer to re-transfer Abington into the joint ownership of her husband and herself.

The couple were moving the property around “like a deck of cards” to suit themselves, and there were “features of Lanigan’s Ball” with Mr Drumm “stepping in and out” of ownership.

Anglo also disputed claims the Abington property was a family home [to which there might be no recourse], and was concerned the transfer could be quickly effected, he said.

In an affidavit read by counsel, Mr Aynsley said the offer of re-transfer [without any admission that the 2009 transfer was void under the 1634 Irish statute of fraudulent conveyances] was “entirely different” from offers by Mrs Drumm in earlier settlement attempts. Mrs Drumm previously offered Anglo a half share of the net proceeds of sale of the property or a half share of the property, but this latest offer involved transferring the property back to Mr Drumm and beyond the reach of all creditors, he said.

Gary McCarthy, for Mrs Drumm, said his client had not considered the legal consequences under US law of the proposal to re-transfer and had not expected Anglo to oppose that offer, which was an attempt to settle the case.

Counsel said his side had been on the phone to Mrs Drumm yesterday during the proceedings and he wished to state there was no intention by Mrs Drumm to put assets beyond the reach of the trustee.

He believed the proceedings by Anglo over the transfer could be settled very quickly.