THE WIFE of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn claims she does not have to repay a €3 million bank loan because she is a homemaker, was unduly influenced by her husband and regularly signed documents he put in front of her without reading them, the Commercial Court was told yesterday.
Patricia Quinn’s claim that she is not liable on grounds of the undue influence of her husband by virtue of their marital status was “an incredible proposition” in breach of the Constitution, Paul Gallagher SC, for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) said.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said, in law, there had been no presumption of undue influence between a husband and wife since 1750. Mrs Quinn was advancing the “startling proposition” she was “a cat’s paw” for her husband, with no clue about documents she was signing and also “clueless” about being a director of many companies, he said.
The bank rejects Mrs Quinn’s claims. It notes that, while she disputed the bank’s description of her as a “business lady”, she had been a director of 91 Quinn Group companies.
Further details of how Mr Quinn ran his family business emerged in court papers filed in the family’s separate legal action against Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
The family has said the Slieve Russell Hotel in Co Cavan has been owned by Mr Quinn’s daughter Brenda since it was built in 1990 but that it was held in trust for her by her mother, Patricia, until she turned 18.
In response to queries raised by the bank about their claims, the family said that it was difficult to say when Brenda Quinn became aware of her ownership of the Slieve Russell as she was about three years old when it was built.
Patricia Quinn and her five children are challenging the bank’s claim that they owe €2.3 billion, claiming that the loans are “tainted with illegality”. They argue that the loans were advanced not for the good of the Quinn Group of businesses or the family but to prop up Anglo’s share price as the banking crisis developed.
They claim that they were only sent the signature pages of the bank’s loan letters and personal guarantees on the debts by the personal assistants of senior executives in the Quinn Group.
They argue that the bank exerted undue pressure through their father and the senior executives in the Quinn Group “whom they trusted” to agree to the loans and personal guarantees, but they claim they did not know they were signing guarantees. Their father was responsible for the strategy to invest in Anglo, they claim.
They name former Anglo chief executive David Drumm and Pat Whelan, Michael O’Sullivan, Lorcan McCluskey, Elma Kinane and Catherine Kilduff among those at the bank who dealt with their loans.
