The Supreme Court has refused the trustees of the Victory Christian Fellowship leave to appeal a Court of Appeal decision in a case with Bank of Scotland plc. The determination was delivered on 22 December 2015.
The trustees are Brendan Hade, Sheila Hade and Gerry Byrne. The bank's receivers, Paul McCann and Patrick Dillon, were also parties to the case.
The High Court gave the bank summary judgment, meaning a decision without a full trial, for €18,758,244.88 plus costs on 29 November 2013. On appeal, the trustees accepted through their counsel that this sum was owed.
Instead, they asked the Court of Appeal to declare that the receivers had been invalidly appointed and to order them to leave two premises. They pointed to alleged representations by the bank, and to confidential information that the bank allegedly received without the trustees' permission.
The Court of Appeal rejected those arguments on 10 June 2015. It found the bank had a contractual right to appoint receivers. It also said it had not been shown that the confidential information played a major part in the bank's decision.
The Supreme Court said the case concerns a private contract that allowed receivers to be appointed, and that the debt is not disputed. It found no point of general public importance, and held the constitutional tests for a further appeal were not met.