THE MINISTER for Finance has failed to secure a High Court order halting a challenge by an Irish Life & Permanent shareholder to the Government’s recapitalisation of the bank. The challenge is one of a number brought over the recapitalisation.
Lawyers for the Minister had argued that the challenge by Piotr Skoczylas, controlling shareholder of Maltese-registered Scotchstone Capital Funds Ltd which bought €200,000 shares in IL&P in autumn 2010, was notified outside the statutory five days allowed.
However, Mr Justice Kevin Feeney yesterday deemed that while the application may have been technically flawed, Mr Skoczylas had made a bona fide attempt to bring his challenge within the prescribed time limits and he would let it proceed.
The judge was ruling on one of a number of preliminary issues in an action in which Mr Skoczylas, his company, two IL&P shareholders – Gerard Dowling and Pádraig McManus – and, in separate proceedings, an investment fund Horizon Growth NV – are all challenging the recapitalisation.
The grounds of challenge include claims that the Minister’s move unlawfully imposes an unacceptable €2.7 billion burden on Irish and other EU taxpayers and hinders free movement of capital.
Earlier yesterday, David Barniville SC, for the Minister, said the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010 – under which the recapitalisation order was made – required the serving within five days of an order of notice of any legal challenge.
The Minister secured the order on July 26th, meaning any person wishing to object had until August 3rd to formally lodge their challenge, something which Mr Skoczylas and Scotchstone had failed to do, Mr Barniville submitted.
Mr Skoczylas is representing himself as an individual IL&P shareholder. The court heard he was in Malta at the relevant time and had been unable to get back to Ireland within the five days.
Mr Skoczylas instructed Mr Dowling and Mr McManus to lodge notice of their challenge on both his and Scotchstone’s behalf on August 3rd.
When they went to file that paper work at the central office of the High Court, they were told that Mr Skoczylas’s application was invalid because it lacked original documentation containing his signatures. A scanned copy of documents containing his signature was not acceptable. Mr Skoczylas returned to Ireland on August 6th.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Feeney said, while the time limit under the 2010 Act was “stringent and absolute”, there could be “no doubt Mr Skoczylas sought to bring his application within time. While his application could be faulted on technical grounds, the court considered it valid.
