Payback time
Judge rules €280,000 ‘gift’ to couple from friend was a loan
A Debt-ridden couple who claimed €280,000 given to them by a friend was a gift were told by a High Court judge yesterday it was a loan.
Jacqueline and John Keenaghan did not repay a cent when “naive” Fidelma “Della” Kerrigan looked for her money back in 2014.
She gave them the cash in 2010 after being awarded €750,000 compo from a 2002 road crash which killed her dad.
But a judge said they had used the money to get a bank and the taxman off their back and replace them with a creditor who was “benign, generous, empathetic, naive and gullible”.
Judge Deirdre Murphy accepted evidence from Ms Kerrigan and her sister Celine that Mrs Keenaghan, whose husband’s business was in difficulty, broached the possibility of Della helping her out – assuring her she would pay back “every penny”.
The judge also said there was a “real possibility” she never told her husband that she had asked for the money and promised to pay it back.
She said rather than acknowledge the debt, they denied it and “at least by implication”, cast doubt on Ms Kerrigan and her sister’s honesty.
The judge added: “The Kerrigans saw this denial for what it was, an enormous breach of trust.”
There was no suggestion Ms Kerrigan ever demanded immediate repayment of the full sum and the court was confident any reasonable proposal would have found favour with Ms Kerrigan even if spread over “many, many years”.
The Keenaghans could have made repayments from the sale of lands and their earnings.
It would “have been reasonable” for them to have asked their adult children, whose education had been “entirely funded” from Ms Kerrigan money, to contribute.
Had they, it was probable “this would never have come to court.”
Judge Murphy stressed even if she had found the €280,000 was a gift, she would have set that aside as an “improvident transaction” on foot of which the defendants had been “unjustly enriched” and it would be “‘unconscionable” to permit them to retain it.
Outside court, Ms Kerrigan, 59, from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, said: “I’m glad it’s over.”
The judge said it was to John Keenaghan’s credit he had qualms about accepting the money despite the financial circumstances his family was in .
But it was to his discredit he accepted a sum “grossly in excess” of the family’s liabilities.
Those liabilities were in region of €180,000 to €190,000.
The Keenaghans paid €83,282 in debts and loans and gave €10,000 to their eldest son and €20,000 to fund their daughter Danielle’s return to college. They also set up a counselling business and paid €88,000 to a VAT and income tax bill.
HIGH COURT YESTERDAY
Kerrigans saw this denial for what it was, a breach of trust
JUDGE DEIRDRE MURPHY
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