THE FAMILY of Seán Quinn has accused the former Anglo Irish Bank of “orchestrating” a “disastrous scenario” that means they are unable to afford lawyers for their action aimed at avoiding liability for loans of up to €2.8 billion.
Their action will continue, the family insisted in a statement yesterday. The family are entitled to represent themselves or engage other lawyers but the latter is considered unlikely given their statement they cannot afford to.
Dublin law firm Eversheds yesterday secured leave to apply on Monday for orders permitting them to cease representing the family in all proceedings except the appeal by Seán Quinn Jnr against an order jailing him last July for contempt of court.
The application means the family will not be legally represented in the action by Patricia Quinn and her children aimed at avoiding liability for loans of up to €2.8 billion made to various Quinn companies by Anglo, now the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
Those proceedings are still at preparation stage and a date for the full hearing has yet to be fixed.
In a second case, the bank alleges members of the family put international property assets, worth millions of euro, beyond its reach and has secured orders freezing assets in that case.
In a third action, the bank wants to set aside a High Court decision referring, to the European Court of Justice, a jurisdictional issue raised in an action brought by the Quinns in Cyprus against the bank which was dismissed recently.
Brian O’Moore SC, counsel for the Quinns, mentioned the application by Eversheds to come off record for the Quinns to Mr Justice Roderick Murphy yesterday. The judge agreed Eversheds could serve short notice of the application and listed it for Monday. Karen Harty, solicitor for IBRC, said she was not objecting to it being heard on Monday.
Mr O’Moore said no complaint had been raised by the Quinns about this and the family fully accepted Eversheds could not continue to represent them. It was expected Monday’s application would be consented to, he said.
Eversheds will apply to represent Seán Quinn Jnr in his Supreme Court appeal, on October 2nd, against the order jailing him for contempt of court in the case of putting assets beyond the bank’s reach, counsel added.
The Quinns said, due to their financial position “as a result of Anglo’s hostile takeover of our companies” and orders obtained by the bank (freezing their accounts worldwide and appointing receivers over assets), they had been forced to instruct their lawyers to stop representing them. “This disastrous scenario . . . has been strategically orchestrated by Anglo who have done everything in their power to ensure our challenge over the illegal loans advanced to our companies is never heard before Irish courts. We are infuriated that Anglo, who unlawfully seized control of our companies on the basis of these illegal loans, continue to stand over them along with the bank’s past management practices.”
They had tried to avoid litigation and to reach an amicable resolution with IBRC but their proposals had been rejected, they added. They were “steadfast” in their resolve to bring the main litigation to a successful conclusion.
IBRC said that “regrettably the Quinns have not done anything substantive” to comply with court orders requiring them to reverse measures that put assets beyond the bank’s reach and “their claims to the contrary are misleading”.
