Sean Dunne consents to judgment

Developer Sean Dunne has consented at the Commercial Court to orders requiring him to pay some €185.3m to the National Assets Management Agency.

The debt arises from loans made to him personally and from his guarantees over other loans to various companies.

On the application of James Doherty, for the agency, and on foot of a written consent of Mr Dunne provided through his lawyers, Mr Justice Peter Kelly today entered summary judgment in the amount of €185,299,627.

The judge also granted the agency liberty to apply to enforce the judgment if necessary. Mr Dunne was not in court for the brief hearing.

The nine separate loan facilities at issue were made by Bank of Ireland, Irish Nationwide Building Society and Allied Irish Banks on dates from 2005 onwards to Mr Dunne personally and to various companies.

Mr Dunne had provided guarantees related to loans to various Mountbrook Companies, the Riverside 4 Development and DCD Builders.

Nama acquired the loans in July 2010 and initiated the court proceedings after demands for repayment by July 2011 last by Mr Dunne and by various companies were not met. Mr Doherty said the matter involved complex layers of security and required careful analysis by the agency to ensure the figures were right before it brought the proceedings.

Mr Doherty also said Nama had made a number of efforts to serve Mr Dunne personally with the proceedings before he was ultimately served on December 22nd last. That service did not go as planned as Mr Dunne was served with original documents and not copies but Mr Dunne had later returned the originals, he said.

Mr Justice Kelly said he was satisfied to transfer the proceedings to the Commercial Court and to enter summary judgment as sought. He found there was no culpable delay by Nama in bringing the case and also said any defect in service had been cured by the entry of an appearance on behalf of Mr Dunne.