A receiver has been given the go-ahead by the High Court to sell two sites in Dalkey, Co Dublin, for €1.15 million after a judge rejected a businessman's claim over the properties.
Receiver Tom O’Brien is entitled to orders permitting the sale of the sites, comprising 0.83 acres, at ‘The Orchard’, Green Road, Mr Justice Brian McGovern said.
Mr O'Brien was appointed receiver last January by Launceston Property Finance who had acquired a €2.3 million unpaid loan given to a firm called Anglo Irish Assurance Company (AIAC) in 2001/2.
AIAC borrowed the money to buy the Dalkey sites and the loan was secured on the property itself.
Mr Justice McGovern rejected arguments by businessman Thomas O’Mahony, who claimed to have an interest in the sites, that the receiver should not be allowed to sell them due to alleged failure to obtain a fair and reasonable price.
Mr O’Mahony had offered €1.2 million but the receiver rejected this because it was a contradiction of Mr O’Mahony’s previous position where he had challenged the receiver’s entitlement to sell, the judge said.
Repudiation
Mr O’Mahony had denied his offer was a repudiation of his previous position and maintained the receiver could not sell to someone else in circumstances where he contended he has had a contract to buy the property since 2004, the judge said.
It was important to note the mortgage deed for the property was linked to personal investment bonds held by Mr O’Mahony and another man who had withdrawn his opposition to the receiver’s sale, the judge said.
While Mr O’Mahony claimed he had an equitable interest in the property, he had provided no evidence that a trust in relation to the lands existed, the judge said.
All the evidence in this case points clearly to the fact that Mr O’Mahony “does not have an interest in the secured properties but rather an investment bond he held” with the other man, the judge said.
Not a creditor
Mr O’Mahony was not a creditor and has no standing to challenge the receiver’s appointment in circumstances where AIAC itself had not raised any objections to the appointment, he said. If the court were to refuse to allow the sale to the person offering €1.15 million, there could be further litigation from that disappointed purchaser in circumstances where Mr O’Mahony’s offer was not significantly greater.
The O’Mahony offer “appears to have been made as a purely tactical exercise with a view to frustrating the proposed agreement for the sale of the secured properties”, he added.
