The Commercial Court has ruled that a high-profile solicitor and his wife must repay loans of more than €70m to Bank of Ireland.
Brian O'Donnell, whose firm was appointed by NAMA to its panel of potential legal advisers, and his wife, psychiatrist Mary Pat O'Donnell, had reached a settlement with the bank in March this year.
The Commercial Court was told this morning, however, that the terms of the settlement had been breached. Payments which were due to have been made under the terms of the settlement had not been made.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly granted judgment against Mr O'Donnell and his wife for the sum of €71.5m. There was no appearance in court by Mr O'Donnell or his wife or anyone on behalf of three associated companies.
Mr Justice Kelly said he had received a letter from Mr O'Donnell's solicitors' company saying the firm of solicitors who had previously been dealing with the matters no longer acted for them due to an alleged conflict of interest with Bank of Ireland.
The judge said it seemed extraordinary that this allegation would be made on the day the matter came before the court.
A letter written on behalf of one of the companies, Avoca Properties Limited, which the O'Donnell's had wanted read out in court, was not read out by lawyers for the bank because they said it contained untrue and defamatory allegations against people who were not before the court.
Mr O'Donnell described himself on his website as "one of Ireland's leading corporate lawyers". His firm was one of 64 appointed by NAMA to its panel of legal firms for potential due diligence work. His firm never received any such work from NAMA and the agency is not carrying out any further due diligence work.
The Commercial Court was previously told that companies in which Mr and Mrs O'Donnell had a shareholding owed €800m to several financial institutions worldwide.
