A US court has granted former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm a hearing to consider whether he should be allowed to retain $500,000 (€364,000) from the sale of his Cape Cod home near Boston.
The hearing takes place before Judge Frank Bailey on November 2nd, according to a court notice published yesterday. Mr Drumm filed an emergency motion challenging an objection against his “homestead exemption” claim on the seaside house in Chatham.
The independent court-appointed lawyer overseeing the liquidation of his assets objected to the claim for the exemption, which allows individuals to retain their home or a similar amount of cash through the bankruptcy process.
She argued that the property was not his principal residence as he was an Irish citizen and was only resident in the US during the 730-day period prior to declaring bankruptcy on a temporary visa.
Mr Drumm’s US visa expires next month, according to testimony he gave in court last April.
He has argued that he missed the deadline to challenge the trustee’s objection on the exemption as he was changing lawyers.
The trustee, Boston lawyer Kathleen Dwyer, objected to his claim for the exemption on August 31st, 2011, giving Mr Drumm until October 12th to file a response, which he failed to do. He said that, in early September, he sought to replace Stuart Grossman of Looney and Grossman and did not engage new lawyers until October 17th when O’Connor Carnathan and Mack, and Morrissey Wilson and Zafiropoulous, were retained.
Ms Dwyer received court approval earlier this month to sell the Chatham house for $3.88 million, which will go towards the repayment of Mr Drumm’s debts.
He owes €8.5 million to Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo), mostly as a result of loans to buy shares in the bank.
