A provisional liquidator has been appointed to Dublin’s Morrison Hotel after co-owner Hugh O'Regan abandoned the hotel operating company’s defence to a claim by a bank-appointed receiver for €5.7 million in unpaid rent.
Liquidator Derek Earl will operate the hotel pending his replacement by a new operating company and it will remain open for business.
An ashen-faced Mr O’Regan, surrounded by family and friends, sat impassively in the back of the High Court this morning as Mr Justice Brian McGovern entered judgment against the Morrison Hotel Ltd for €5.73 million.
Paul Sreenan SC, for receiver Martin Ferris, then immediately applied to the judge to appoint Mr Earl of Grant Thornton provisional liquidator to MHL on grounds it is unable to pay the €5.7 million to Anglo Irish Bank and therefore insolvent.
Mr Justice McGovern said he was satisfied to appoint Mr Earl and returned the matter to July 17th when the court will deal with the petition to wind up MHL.
The Morrison hotel is co-owned by Mr O’Regan, Patrick Kelly and Patrick Dunning and was operated by MHL.
Earlier, counsel for MHL Martin Hayden said Mr O’Regan had had time to reflect overnight on matters in the court proceedings by the receiver and on comments by the judge and was no longer pursuing a defence.
In those circumstances, judgment could be entered, counsel said.
Mr Justice McGovern said he understood fully the “distress and upset of Mr O’Regan (47) in seeing what was a very large enterprise disappearing before his eyes”. Unfortunately, Mr O’Regan was not the only person engaged in successful businesses which had come unstuck, he added.
The judge said he had become concerned as to how matters were progressing in the proceedings over the rent and was concerned Mr O’Regan could get into further difficulties “if things did not happen soon”.
After Mr O’Regan gave evidence to the court yesterday and was cross-examined by Rossa Fanning, for the receiver, the judge suggested he consider his position. The judge had earlier remarked Mr O’Regan was trying to project himself as “some sort of ignorant simpleton” when he could not be given the business empire he had run.
After the court proceedings today, Mr O’Regan shook hands with Mr Ferris and the two men exchanged a few words. He then left the court with his family. He said he was “upset” but did not wish to comment further at this stage.
In his evidence to the court, Mr O’Regan had said he almost suffered a mental breakdown last year when Mr Ferris was appointed receiver over his business empire and is now living on €3,000 a month from the Morrison Hotel. His wife is also working, the court heard.
When Anglo appointed the receiver, “everything else came down”, including a project to build a hotel in Kilternan, Co Dublin for which he received a €180 million loan from Irish Nationwide just last year.
He said he was very concerned about the future of the Morrison Hotel, had designed it with John Rocha and wanted it “treated with some level of dignity”. He was “trying to fight for survival” against a big corporation, he added.
