Judgment for €62.5 million has been registered against the property developer Bernard McNamara after the Commercial Court was told this afternoon that he would not be appealing a decision made against him in a case taken by a group of Davy investors.
Mr McNamara, one of Ireland's foremost property developers during the boom years, has told the court he is not in a position to pay the money.
Earlier this week the court was told he has no unencumbered assets and is “no longer a man of significant net worth”. The court was also told there was a prospect that judgment against him could trigger other claims from creditors and financial institutions.
The judgment against Mr McNamara was made by Mr Justice Peter Kelly on December 18th last but a stay was put on it at the developer's request.
Mr Justice Kelly was due to give his ruling on the stay issue today.
However Martin Hayden SC, for Mr McNamara and his company, Donatex Ltd, said they would not be appealing the ruling and that therefore the request for a stay no longer arose.
John Gleeson SC, for the investors, said they were anxious the orders against Mr McNamara and Donatex could be drawn up as early as possible and was told by Mr Justice Peter Kelly they could be issued later this afternoon.
Mr Justice Kelly has made a judgment of €62.5 million against Mr McNamara and of €98.14 million against Donatex. Both have told the court they are not in a position to satisfy the judgments. Donatex is a special purpose company set up by Mr McNamara for his involvement in a consortium that bought the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, Dublin, in 2006. The Davy investors put the money into Donatex with interest to accrue at an effective rate of 17 per cent.
The investors successfully applied for their investment to be returned, with interest, after the consortium’s vehicle, Becbay, failed to secure the envisaged planning permission in the timescale set out in the original plan for the project. The order against Mr McNamara arises from a personal guarantee he furnished.
The only asset owned by Donatex is its involvement in the Ringsend deal. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority, which is a member of the Becbay consortium, has valued the site at €50 million.