Gowling WLG's finance litigation experts bring you the latest on the cases and issues affecting the lending industry.

As we head into a new Legal Year, we examine recent trends in debt recovery litigation. The Courts Service 2015 Annual Report noted, in the words of Chief Justice Ms. Susan Denham, “another busy year for the courts”. Indeed, the courts received 248,254 new civil cases in 2015, a very marginal decrease from the corresponding 2014 figure.

Default judgments

This article was first published on the Practical Law website and in the PLC Magazine in June 2016.

Challenger banks, which are set up to compete with the larger traditional banks, have seen rapid growth in the wake of increased openness to change in the banking sector and a desire for more consumer choice. Their clever targeting of niche markets is opening up plenty of scope for growth. While this opportunity does not come without difficulties, the rewards for challenger banks that succeed can be considerable.

36979  Darin Andrew Randle v. Her Majesty the Queen

(B.C.)

Criminal law – Evidence – “Mr. Big” confessions

The High Court has reiterated that cross-examination will not generally be permitted on an interlocutory application, or where there is no conflict of fact on the affidavits.

In McCarthy v Murphy,^[1] the defendant mortgagor was not permitted to cross-examine the plaintiff (a receiver) or a bank employee who swore a supporting affidavit.

Background

Two recent judgments have brought further clarity in relation to the rights acquirers of loan portfolios to enforce against borrowers:

In AIB Mortgage Bank -v- O'Toole & anor [2016] IEHC 368 the High Court determined that a bank was not prevented from relying on a mortgage as security for all sums due by the defendants, despite issuing a redemption statement which omitted this fact.

In order to understand this case, it is necessary to set out the chronology of events:

In early 2016, the Government commissioned an examination into laws protecting employees following the overnight closure of the historic Clerys department store in Dublin in June 2015, with the immediate loss of 460 jobs. We review the recently published report which sets out six key proposals for legislative reform.

In a pivotal decision released May 19, an Alberta court ruled in favour of Grant Thornton Limited, the Receiver and Trustee in the Redwater Energy Corporation (Redwater) receivership and bankruptcy proceedings, upholding its right to disclaim Redwater’s non-producing oil wells and sell its producing ones. Gowling WLG served as co-counsel to Grant Thornton throughout the proceedings.

The European Court of Justice has held that a director of an English company can be liable for breach of German company law where insolvency proceedings are opened in Germany.