Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Ltd v Quinn

[1] On 10 November 2011 the respondent John Ignatius Quinn, commonly known as Sean Quinn, filed a Debtor's Bankruptcy Petition in the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland requesting that a bankruptcy order be made against him pursuant to the provisions of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 ("the Order").

[2] This petition was heard by the Master in Bankruptcy on 11 November 2011. She accepted the submission of Mr John Gordon, solicitor, of Messrs Napier and Sons, that, despite his habitual residence in the Republic of Ireland, the centre of his main interests pursuant to EC Regulation 1346/2000 was in Northern Ireland and he was therefore entitled to bring such a petition here.

[4] The petition was accompanied by a Statement of Affairs and for these purposes it is sufficient to note that at paragraph 11.2 Mr Quinn disclosed that he had been excluded from the running of the Quinn group business by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited. At several places in the Statement of Affairs he refers to litigation in which he is a defendant to claims brought by the bank or a third party in relation to proceedings by his children against the bank, as the shareholders in almost all the Quinn companies.

[5] On foot of the Petition and Statement of Affairs and the submissions made to her the Master made a Bankruptcy Order on 11 November 2011.

[6] On 17 November 2011 the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Limited ("the Bank"), formerly named Anglo-Irish Bank, filed an application to, inter alia, annul the said order pursuant to Article 256(1)(a) of the 1989 Order and to rescind the order pursuant to Article 371 of the Order or within the inherent jurisdiction of the court on the basis that the court lacked the jurisdiction to open main proceedings under Article 3(1) of EC Regulation 1346/2000 or on the basis that the ex parte order had been obtained through misrepresentation and/or non-disclosure.