Gayle Dunne, wife of bankrupt developer Sean Dunne, wants court orders allowing her lawyers to cross-examine her husband's bankruptcy trustee as part of her bid to overturn an order freezing her assets below €50million.
Chris Lehane, the official administering Mr Dunne's bankruptcy, got the freezing order earlier this year arising from the trustee's view efforts have been made to put some of Mr Dunne's assets beyond the reach of his creditors.
Those assets include “Walford”, a house on Dublin’s Shrewsbury Road which Mr Dunne bought for €58 million in 2005 – making it the country’s most expensive home at the time – and gifted to his wife.
The house was sold last year for €14.2 million to a trust which is in turn held in a family trust whose settlor is financier Dermot Desmond.
Mr Desmond says the purchaser, Celtic Trustees Ltd, has good title to the property and he has brought a separate Commercial Court challenge to a legal claim, a lis pendens, which Mr Lehane has registered on the property.
On Tuesday, Ms Justice Caroline Costello fixed May 23rd for hearing Ms Dunne’s application to cross-examine Mr Lehane.
Application
Ms Dunne has also applied to have parts of Mr Lehane’s affidavit deemed inadmissible, including references to evidence previously given to the court by a solicitor who acted for Sean Dunne in relation to the sale of Walford.
Mr Lehane wants Mr Dunne’s bankruptcy extended over alleged non-co-operation by the developer with the trustee and, in pursuit of that application, his lawyers examined solicitor Donal McAuliffe in court earlier this year over the sale of Walford to Yesreb Holdings in 2013. Last December, Yesreb sold the property to Celtic Trustees.
In Mr Lehane’s proceedings, he believes Mr Dunne, as part of alleged efforts to put his assets beyond the reach of the trustee, was behind the 2013 sale of Walford to Yesreb and Yesreb was secretly owned by Mr Dunne or his wife, or both of them.
Yesreb purportedly bought Walford from Gayle Dunne on March 29th, 2013, the same day Sean Dunne filed for bankruptcy in the US.
In his evidence, Mr McAuliffe said the conveyancing procedure involved was “perfectly legitimate” and he had instructions from Yesreb, through Sean Dunne as its agent, to sell the property.
The solicitor agreed a handwritten deed of trust dated July 23rd, 2005, stating the Walford property was beneficially owned by Gayle Dunne, was critical in relation to the title to Walford and the claim Gayle Dunne owns it. In the deed, Mr Dunne also consented to transfer of Walford to Ms Dunne or her nominee.
Mr McAuliffe agreed Yesreb is the nominee and said he could not recall exactly when he got the deed from Mr Dunne.
