A High Court judge has said missing solicitor Michael Lynn may have given a false account as to why he is unavailable to give evidence by video link in a multi-million euro law suit.
The disgraced solicitor was due to give evidence by video link from London this Friday but the High Court was told he had flu.
A medical certificate was submitted to the Court this morning, but the Court heard that it was in Portuguese and was 'indecipherable'.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke said he would review the matter overnight but added that it appeared Mr Lynn may have given a false account of why he would not be able to give evidence.
Last July, the High Court ordered that Mr Lynn - who is missing with fraudulent mortgage debts of over €80m - could give evidence from abroad by video-link in a case being taken by the Cunningham Group against First Active over loans issued for a number of major developments.
It meant Mr Lynn could participate in the action without having to come to Ireland, where he faces arrest for contempt of court.
On Tuesday last the court heard everything was in order for Mr Lynn to give his video-link evidence this Friday from London.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke said he would be prepared to reschedule Mr Lynn if a medical certificate was made available to the court today. The judge said he wanted this because he did not want to reschedule 'for a second time and find Mr Lynn has some other reason he cannot attend.'
Today Mr Justice Clarke said he proposed leaving the question of reorganising the video-link evidence until matters have been clarified.
There was no reason to suggest Mr Lynn's lawyers, Merriman White, had not acted in good faith, the judge said. But it seemed that if a rescheduling was to take place it would require the judge to be properly satisfied. He said he would review the matter in the morning.
The marathon legal action by the Cunningham Group against First Active is over a series of multi-million euro loans it issued to development companies owned by the group's founder, Brian Cunningham.
It is alleged loans totalling some €30m were issued between 1999 and 2002 to the group for three projects, including a site in Salthill in Galway, and a revamp of Finglas town centre in Dublin.
Michael Lynn acted as solicitor for Mr Cunningham before the group was placed into receivership and he was also present at a key meeting to agree loan facilities, it is claimed.
Mr Cunningham claims he lost out on a €393m property deal because his bank 'deceived' him into selling a lucrative site. First Active deny the claims.
