THE VALUE of court judgments rose by more than 400 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, while the number of judgments was up 31 per cent.
New figures from Stubbs Gazette publisher BusinessPro show that €378 million was awarded in court judgments during the first quarter of the year. This is 415 per cent higher than the same period a year earlier and exceeds the total figure for 2009.
This dramatic increase was primarily due to the €160.5 million judgment order made against Bernard McNamara and his company, Donatex.
The level of activity in the courts also accelerated in the first three months of the year.
The BusinessPro statistics also reveal that the level of legal actions taken by banks participating in the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), such as Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and AIB, was relatively low in the first quarter. For example, the only major legal case taken by Anglo was against financier Niall McFadden, in which the bank was awarded about €15 million.
By contrast, Rabobank-owned ACC secured eight judgments worth €30 million, while Bank of Scotland Ireland was awarded €17.5 million.
Greg Connell, BusinessPro’s strategy director, said: “From the relatively low level of court action initiated by the domestic banks, it would appear that development loans destined to be transferred to Nama have not been subject to intensive legal enforcement action, either against the corporate body or the individuals who gave personal guarantees.”
This indicated that developers financed by domestic banks were being dealt with more leniently, in terms of legal enforcement, because the loans were going to be transferred to Nama, he added.
