The Irish Times – Wednesday, January 26, 2011
BANK OF Ireland has settled its court action against Celtic football club manager Neil Lennon in which it had sought €3 million summary judgment orders over a guarantee allegedly provided by Mr Lennon for a loan to a building company of which he was a director.
The bank had admitted it had lost the actual guarantee document but claimed it could produce evidence that Mr Lennon had signed the guarantee at Dublin airport in February 2006.
The bank sought summary judgment against Mr Lennon over the alleged loan guarantee last year but he argued he had a credible defence and had not executed the guarantee.
The court ruled the matter should go to full hearing, which was listed to open yesterday before Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan.
However, following talks between the sides, the judge was told the matter had been settled and could be adjourned until March for the making of any necessary consequential orders. The terms of settlement were confidential.
BofI had claimed Mr Lennon, with an address at Queen’s Gardens, Glasgow, was a director of Rocket Developments Ltd, the Crescent, Dundalk, Co Louth.
It claimed it loaned Rocket €3 million in early 2006 to part fund the proposed purchase of seven acres of zoned residential land at Knockbridge, Dundalk.
The loan principal and interest were to be cleared in full within a 12-month period from the sale of serviced sites on those lands, it alleged.
The bank claimed Mr Lennon had signed a personal letter of guarantee for the loan for €3,070,000 at Dublin airport on February 24th, 2006 in the presence of two bank officials.
Three days later, the bank claimed, Mr Lennon brought the signed personal guarantee to the BofI branch in Dundalk where it was placed on an official’s desk. It was discovered in mid to late 2006 that the guarantee had been mislaid and extensive searches failed to locate it.
Mr Lennon had later refused to re-sign a copy of the guarantee, the bank claimed. In its action, it alleged it was entitled to rely on the terms of its standard personal guarantee and on evidence from the officials allegedly present when the guarantee was allegedly signed.
Rocket defaulted on its loan obligations and Mr Lennon is liable for €3.07 million under his alleged guarantee, it was claimed.
In a sworn statement to the court last year, Colm McHugh, a senior business manager at BofI’s Dundalk branch, said Mr Lennon arrived at Dublin airport on February 24th, 2006, carrying golf clubs and had signed the guarantee form at the Bank of Ireland branch at the airport.
Mr McHugh said Mr Lennon told him he anticipated planning permission would be obtained by Rocket for about 60 houses.