Glackin v Trustee Savings Bank

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: MR. JUSTICE COSTELLO
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1993
• Neutral Citation: 1992 WJSC-HC 2062
• Docket Number: [1992 No. 2265P],1992/2265P
• Court: High Court
• Date: 01 January 1993

1992 WJSC-HC 2062

THE HIGH COURT

1992/2265P

GLACKIN v. TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANK

In the matter of:

THE COMPANIES ACT 1963– 1990

And in the matter of:

CHESTVALE PROPERTIES LIMITED

And in the matter of:

HODDLE INVESTMENTS LIMITED

JOHN A. GLACKIN

Plaintiff

TRUSTEE SAVINGS BANK SIDNEY McINERNEY

Defendants

Citations:

COMPANIES ACT 1990 S14

COMPANIES ACT 1990 S10(5)

COMPANIES ACT 1990 S10(6)

Synopsis:

BANKER

Duty

Statute - Provisions - Compliance - Information - Supply - Owner ship of bank account - Information sought by Ministerial appointee - Irrelevance of client's views - (1992/2265 P - Costello J. - 10/4/92) - [1993] 3 I.R. 55

|Glackin v. Trustee Savings Bank|

COMPANY

Ownership

Powers - Investigation - Membership - Control - Financial interest - Bank account - Ownership - Information demanded from bank by inspector - Refusal of bank to give information - Inspector's certificate of refusal - Bank ordered to disclose information - Procedure - Rules of the Superior Courts, 1986, order 75B, r. 5(b) - (1992/2265 P - Costello J. - 10/4/92) - [1993] 3 I.R. 55

|Glackin v. Trustee Savings Bank|

PRACTICE

Procedure

Ex parte - Inspector - Information - Demand - Information refused - Inspector's certificate of refusal - Inspector's application for an enquiry - (1992/2265 P - Costello J. - 10/4/92)1993 3 I.R.55

|Glackin v. Trustee Savings Bank|

1 JUDGMENT OF MR. JUSTICE COSTELLO DELIVERED THE 10TH DAY OF APRIL 1992 .

2 Mr. Glackin was appointed inspector on the 9th October 1991 in respect of the companies named in the title of this matter, namely Chestvale Properties Limited and Hoddle Investments Limited. He was given powers by the Minister in accordance with the provisions of Section 14. The inquiry which he undertook brought him very quickly in to consider the circumstances surrounding a sale of property in Ballsbridge which occurred on the 29th June, 1990. Hoddle had entered into a contract in May of 1990 in relation to the sale of this property for £9.4 million. The purchase price for this property was paid into Ansbacher Bank Limited and from there was transferred into the account in the bank which was in the name of company called Delion Investment Dealings Limited.

3 Mr. Desmond, who has featured prominently in these proceedings and in other proceedings relating to these companies acting on behalf of Delion instructed, on the 26th July 1990, Ansbacher to pay the sum of £1.3 million and another sum of £1.131 million into a numbered account, in respect of the numbered account that these proceedings before me now relate.

4 The Trustee Savings Bank Limited in which this numbered account was kept were requested by Mr. Glackin, pursuant to the powers under the Act to make certain information available to him, and on the 27th March 1992, a formal request in relation to it was made and refused and thereafter these proceedings were instituted. They started by means of Plenary Summons and then a motion for direction dated 27th March followed. A further motion was issued in these proceedings by a firm called Freezone Investments Limited. It has now transpired and was not clear for sometime but is now accepted that the numbered account to which I have referred in the TSB is in fact the account of Freezone Investments Limited. They wish to be added on as a party to the proceedings.

5 On a purely procedural issue, the situation by which agreement is being adopted is this. By decision of Mr. Justice O'Hanlon given on the 26th February this year, the provisions of Section 10(5) of the Act, which would permit the court on the certificate of a refusal given by the inspector, to commit for contempt were declared to be unconstitutional but the learned Judge held and there has been no objection to the view there expressed, this decision did not affect in any way the courts powers under Subsection 6 of the Section. The rules made by the rules committee being rule number 4 of the Superior Courts in 1991, permit an application under Subsection 5, for the presentation of a certificate of refusal to be made on ex parte motion and thereafter for an inquiry to be held and by agreement, it has been decided that I should in fact now treat the application before me as an ex parte application and hold an inquiry under the Section. This is not of very great significance but it does, I think, mean that for example, I may hear witnesses, if so requested when such an inquiry is held and I think I can hear these witnesses by means of Affidavit and so, rather than read Freezone as a party to these proceedings, I will adopt the powers which are given to me by the Section and allow the evidence of Freezone to be heard on foot of the inquiry, which I am now holding and of course hear submissions on behalf of Freezone's counsel as I did.

6 The situation in relation to the site and the sale is a very complex one and the number of legal entities involved in it are many. The arrangements are very intricate and I need not recite them here now, they have been very fully recorded in the judgment of Mr. Justice O'Hanlon, to which I have referred but just very briefly if I may just refer to some of the salient features of the facts which have been established before me, in the Affidavits before me.

7 It would appear that the owner of the property of the site in Ballsbridge would appear to have been Hoddle Investments Limited. At some material time certainly, this was the legal entity that obtained the purchase price. The bank into which the purchase price was paid, in fact, put the money, on the instructions of Mr. Dermot Desmond, into the account of another company named Delion Investments Limited, and then it transpires that again on his instructions, this Delion Investments transferred the monies, which are the subject of inquiry here, into the TSB account. The TSB account is owned by this company, Freezone Investments, and it does appear as if Freezone Investments became entitled to either the proceeds of the sale or the profits of the proceeds of the sale in some way.

8 It further appears that Mr. Desmond has a...