AN ELDERLY man has brought a High Court challenge to the Law Society’s refusal to pay him €500,000 compensation after his daughter, a solicitor, allegedly misappropriated money from the estate of a deceased woman of which he was the main beneficiary.
Larry Quinn (84), a retired lorry driver, Montrose Park, Perrystown, Dublin, claims he and his son, Larry jnr, were appointed co-executors of the estate of the late Sarah Doody, whose will was made in 2003. Mr Quinn claims he was the main beneficiary of the will.
The court heard the estate mainly consisted of the €555,000 proceeds of the 2004 sale of a house at Wainsfort Road, Terenure, Dublin, and some €117,000 in a joint account held by Mr Quinn and Doody.
Mr Quinn claims his daughter, Joan Quinn, a solicitor who formerly practised under the title of Quinn and Company, Village Green, Tallaght, Dublin, had acted as the administrator of the estate.
Mr Quinn claims he discovered in 2009 his daughter was involved in the misappropriation of some €529,000 from the estate. As a result, he applied to the Law Society for compensation but his application was refused in October 2009 on grounds including he was negligent in his capacity as executor.
The Law Society’s Regulation of Practice Committee also refused compensation on grounds that Mr Quinn did not seek compensation until after the Law Society had begun proceedings against Ms Quinn. Mr Quinn unsuccessfully applied to have the matter reconsidered.
In his proceedings, he claims he was given no opportunity to engage with the society, to make submissions or to present evidence. The society’s decision was made in breach of fair procedures and natural justice, it is alleged.
Mr Quinn wants a court order quashing the refusal of the committee to grant him a compensation payment. He is also seeking declarations that he has not been guilty of negligence and that the refusal of compensation breaches his rights.
Leave to bring the judicial review proceedings was granted by Mr Justice Michael Peart who has returned the matter to later this month.
Michael Collins SC, for Mr Quinn, said the society last June upheld its original decision refusing compensation on the basis of findings by the Regulation of Practice Committee that he had been negligent and failed to ensure the estate was distributed to the beneficiaries expeditiously.
An independent review last August upheld the society’s refusal to pay Mr Quinn.
Mr Collins said Mr Quinn was unable to realise the assets from the sale of the house, held by Ms Quinn, because of certain undertakings he had made. Mr Quinn wished to give evidence of those undertakings to the RPC but was unable to do so.
The RPC had incorrectly assumed Mr Quinn waited inactively for more than three years before taking any action, but had no evidence before it to justify the conclusion he had been negligent, Mr Collins added.