High Court awards €30k aggravated damages against a solicitor

Brendan Burgess

Founder
Messages
52,254
This is a mad case as reported in yesterday's Irish Times.


The original case is reported here


In 2003, the daughter defrauded the mother and father by not telling them that they were transferring their home to her.
She borrowed €190k based on it and the lenders tried to repossess the houses.

It was only in 2017, that the mother discovered that she did not own the house any more.

She sued the solicitor for negligence and the solicitor defended the case for three days before conceding it.

Mr O’Gorman, the judge said, had behaved in “a grossly negligent manner” towards Marie Gibson and her late husband. The solicitor was “clearly aware” of all his own actions including that he had failed to furnish any written advice to Marie Gibson, the judge said.

Mr O’Gorman had not witnessed Mrs Gibson’s signatures on documents relating to the purported transfer but had later claimed that he had witnessed the signatures.

Despite all this, the judge said, Mr O’Gorman had sought to defend the case against him “tooth and nail” until the third day of the trial when it became clear that “the solicitor’s actions in this matter were indefensible”, the judge said.
Mr O’Gorman was held to be acting for the plaintiff and her husband in the property transfer and it was “clear beyond doubt” that he was grossly negligent in not providing any advice to them, the court held. On his evidence, Mr O’Gorman paid all the loan monies to Pauline and “not a cent” went to the parents. The court said “this was a transaction of such extreme improvidence that no reasonable solicitor could possibly have advised their client to engage in such a transaction”.


The judge is considering referring the matter to the Law Society and the Revenue Commissioners.

I suspect that they won't need a referral. The solicitor can expect two knocks on his door sometime soon.

Brendan
 
From the first link:
"Further, Mr O’Gorman falsified dates on various documents to misrepresent the date of transfer to Revenue and avoid stamp duty, destroyed two pages of the original deed of transfer and signed documents confirming that the parents had signed in his presence which he knew to be untrue."

... wow. That's "a grossly negligent manner" if ever there was one.
 
Back
Top