Liquidator appointed to Zoe firms

The long-running court battle to prevent the collapse of developer Liam Carroll’s heavily insolvent Zoe group has finally ended after the Supreme Court today made orders confirming the liquidation of key companies in the group.

The three judge court outlined its reasons for finding the companies were not entitled to bring a second petition for court protection after both the High and Supreme Courts had refused the first petition, initiated last July. The second petition was also refused by the High Court last month.

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, said the companies must bear the consequences of Mr Carroll’s decision to deliberately withhold “material and crucial evidence” from the courts “in the teeth of legal advice” when they brought their first application for court protection.

That “conscious and deliberate strategic decision” to withhold the companies’ business plan was an abuse of the court’s process in relation to the appointment of examiners and was a clear bar to a second petition proceeding, he said.

Ms Justice Susan Denham said Mr Carroll was the primary mover of the first petition and had made a strategic decision not to provide information about the companies’ business plan to the courts.

The judge noted there had been references to Mr Carroll’s health at the time but there was no evidence of medical reasons which could weigh as a significant factor before the court.

She disagreed with the view of High Court judge Mr Justice John Cooke, who had allowed the second petition to be brought, that the overriding consideration must be the objective of securing, if feasible, the interests of creditors, employees and those doing business with the companies, by investigating whether they had any reasonable prospect of survival.

This could not be an overriding consideration because, if it were, it would mean, whatever actions a petitioning company took, they could bring multiple petitions for protection after each other, she said.

The judges, with whose judgments Mr Justice Nial Fennelly agreed, also made orders lifting a stay on the winding up of the companies. Declan Taite, who was provisional liquidator until today, now becomes official liquidator.

The court made further orders awarding the costs of most of the various court proceedings to ACC Bank, which is owed €136 million by Zoe companies and had opposed court protection being granted. The issue of the costs of the Supreme Court appeal will be dealt with later.