A HIGH court judge has directed that ACC Bank is to be paid €1.9 million from money realised from the sale of Glenlion House, Howth, Co Dublin, the intended family home of missing solicitor Michael Lynn and his wife, Bríd Murphy.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday directed the payment out of the sum to ACC which, under a settlement last month of proceedings against Ms Murphy, will ultimately receive €4.2 million, the bulk of the €4.7 million proceeds of sale of the house. Ms Murphy is claiming entitlement to the remaining proceeds of more than €400,000, but Bank of Scotland Ireland disputes that.
Counsel for BoSI expressed concern yesterday that the manner in which the ACC/Murphy settlement was constructed may have excessively diluted the sum available to it from the proceeds of sale but also accepted that ACC's claim ranked above BoSI's claim.
Gary McCarthy, for Ms Murphy, said BoSI had chosen not to participate in the court proceedings involving Ms Murphy and ACC and was not entitled to shoehorn in a claim at this point.
During yesterday's proceedings, there were exchanges between Caroline Costello, for BoSI, and Mr McCarthy as to what was said during the ACC/Murphy proceedings, but Mr Justice Kelly said it was not for him to determine the claims by the sides.
He noted Ms Murphy and BoSI will enter mediation talks later this month related to what is to happen to €400,000 left from the sale proceeds. If those talks are unsuccessful, the judge directed that the High Court will then decide whether BoSI can make those claims in light of the settlement.
ACC has been accepted to have a prior claim arising from a €3.8 million mortgage granted by it for the purchase of Glenlion House and is to get more than €4.2 million of the proceeds of the Glenlion sale, leaving Ms Murphy and BoSI to fight over the remainder.
At one point, Ms Murphy was facing claims for some €11 million over three loans for the purchase of Glenlion House obtained from ACC, BoSI and Irish Nationwide Building Society in early 2007.
Each bank had lent sums of about €3.8 million. Various legal actions have succeeded in greatly reducing that potential liability and INBS has withdrawn its claim.
The house was bought for €5.5 million, but sold at auction earlier this year to meet some of Mr Lynn's estimated €80 million liabilities.
Ms Murphy, who was earning €46,000 a year as a nurse when she met Mr Lynn in 2004 and who gave up work in early 2006, claimed her husband conducted all financial dealings for the house, that her signature was forged on certain loan documents and that she was aware only of the loan from Bank of Scotland Ireland.
She also claims any liability by her to BoSI was limited to any money which might be secured by her in the proceedings with ACC Bank because of alleged negligence by BoSI in not carrying out proper checks before lending money to her husband.
The settlement of her case relating to ACC Bank means that the €3.78 million lent by ACC to buy Glenlion is to be paid to ACC from the €4.7 million net proceeds of the sale of Glenlion.
That deduction left €900,000 to be halved between Mr Lynn and Ms Murphy, given the 50 per cent interest held by each in Glenlion.
ACC has accepted that Ms Murphy could have half of that sum but that in turn is subject to Bank of Scotland's claims. ACC has secured a declaration that it was entitled to Mr Lynn's half of the €900,000 sum on the basis of other loans made to him by ACC.