A BANK has secured a court order requiring a couple to repay loans of €4.5 million granted to them to finance the purchase and restoration of Vastina House on 95 acres at Castletowngeoghegan, Co Westmeath.
However, Mr Justice Peter Kelly placed a stay on execution and registration of the judgment for two months to allow Adrian and Deirdre Murphy more time to secure completion of a contract for sale of lands at Ardmore Road, Mullingar.
The judge was ruling on an application by ACC Bank for summary judgment for more than €4.55 million against the couple, with an address at another house in Castletowngeoghegan. While counsel for the couple accepted the sums were due, he asked for time to allow completion of a contract for the sale of lands at Ardmore Road.
Two payments due under that contract had not been made but his side had served a completion notice on the purchaser, counsel added.
Mr Justice Kelly said the contract was in a state "of considerable fragility" but he also noted it had the backing of a company that had recorded substantial profits.
He noted the bank had been kept aware of all the developments in relation to the proposed sale of lands and had lent further monies in October last year.
However, those factors did not give rise to the defendants being able to stave off the bank's entitlement to judgment and the couple accepted the bank was entitled to judgment.
The judge said he could well understand the couple's difficulties and that these were not favourable times for selling properties.
The judge said he would grant judgment in the amount sought, plus interest and costs, and would put a stay of two months on execution and registration of the judgment as this would give adequate time for the proposed sale to be completed.
The lands at Ardmore Road were at the centre of other proceedings brought by Adrian Murphy and another man, Seán Mackin, Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin, in the Commercial Court earlier this year against a businessman, Tom Ryan.
Those proceedings, in which the plaintiffs sought an order requiring Mr Ryan to honour a contract in which a 32-acre site at Ardmore Road was to be bought by others for €5.75m and then to be sold on to Mr Ryan in a deal valued at €18 million, were later compromised.
The plaintiffs said they entered into a contract with Mr Ryan who undertook to buy the 32 acres in July 2006.
Mr Ryan set about preparing planning applications and canvassing developers whom he believed would be interested in developing the land as partners.
It was agreed to close the sale on January 2007 but it did not happen because, Mr Ryan said, the property market was slowing and there was "not the same level of interest" shown in the site.
