For a man who has lost a $691 million (€585 million) lawsuit, Thomas Suter is in a remarkably good mood.

"I'm delighted it's all over, just thrilled," he says of his AIB shareholder action to sue the former executives and directors of Allfirst and recoup the massive losses sustained by trader John Rusnak.

In his first interview about the case, Mr Suter, a retired pharmacist, said he was absolutely delighted that the Maryland Appeals Court last month threw out his lawsuit, which would have seen the insurers for Allfirst, AIB's former US subsidiary, repay all the money lost by Rusnak.

He also said he definitely would not be pursuing the case in Ireland, despite soundings from his lawyers, Charles J Piven & Associates, that they want to take the case to Dublin.

"There's no way I want in on that, I never wanted to be in this case in the first place and getting dragged into it was one of the dumbest things I ever did," he said.

Mr Suter, the president of the plaintiff company, Tomran, said his business partner was persuaded by class action lawyers to take the case on behalf of all AIB shareholders.

He said that the Tomran corporation was set up to allow him and his business partner, Arnold Neuberger, to invest in solid stock and had never intended to get involved in a lengthy legal battle.

"The lawyers asked us to put our names to the case. If they won, they got a cut and the rest went to shareholders. We weren't going to get anything. I'm just happy to be rid of the whole thing," he said.

Mr Suter said that he wanted to get back to his retirement life of golf and bridge and that had no problem with AIB, given that the price of his shares had jumped since the Allfirst scandal broke.

Irish newspapers had said that the Tomran case was taken by "irate" US investors, who were "furious" at the scandal, a claim that makes Mr Suter laugh.

"I just wanted the case over with, I'm perfectly happy with the share price," he said.

Tomran never had a clear AIB shareholder case, as it held only American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which are securities offered by non-US companies who want to list on an American exchange. Each ADR can be converted to a company's regular shares.

The Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in December ended all US legal action in the case, as the court ruled by a six-to-one majority that only Irish law should decide the case and that the ADRs did not give Tomran the right to sue in the US.

The plaintiff's lawyers had claimed that the case should be tried under New York's very liberal shareholder laws because the AIB depositary receipts were issued through a New York bank.

The Charles J Piven law firm is now looking at the legal time limits in Ireland to determine if it can sue Allfirst's former directors and executives in Dublin.

The firm is hoping that the former top level of Allfirst will be found personally liable for Rusnak's losses and that their insurance companies will have to repay the $691 million.

However, Mark D Gately, the lawyer representing the most senior of the Allfirst defendants, David Cronin, said it was much more difficult to take a shareholder action in Ireland and he believed that the case was now dead.