Undisclosed damages are to be paid to a Galway solicitor and his wife after the Irish Permanent Building Society bounced a cheque for £699 which had been given to a travel agency as a deposit on a winter holiday in 1994. Mr Paul Horan, who has a legal practice at Eyre Square, Galway, and his wife Susan, of Oughterard, Co Galway, had sued the IPBS in the High Court for damages for libel, breach of contract and/or negligence.
In April 1994, the Horans asked the society to open a cur rent account and directed it to deposit in it £15,185, which was the balance due to them having taken out a new mortgage. They claimed that a cheque for £699 which Mr Horan paid to John Ryan (Travel) Ltd of Williamsgate Street, Galway, was wrongfully marked "returned to drawer".
The society said the current account was not opened until June 1994, and nothing was lodged until September 16th, 1994, when £15,368 was withdrawn from their deposit share account and lodged in the current account. On September 6th, 1994, when the cheque for £699 was drawn, there were no funds avail able to meet it.