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GAZETTE
March 1976
made a similar order on the application of Mr. Vincent
Landy, S.C., for the Irish Trust Bank Ltd., and he
awarded the costs of the petition to the creditors
represented.
Mr. McCracken said he was instructed to ask for a
stay on any order the Court might make and he could
undertake to expedite any appeal. He ' thought the
Supreme Court would entertain any application for a
quick hearing.
Mr. Justice Hamilton said he was satisfied his
orders were correct and he saw no reason to put a
stay on them. If Mr. McCracken wanted to appeal he
could apply to the Supreme Court.
When Mr. McCracken said he was instructed to
ask for the appointment of a Committee of Inspection,
Mr. Justice Hamilton said he would make no order
in this regard for the moment.
The Court then rose, but half an hour later it was
reported to Mr. Justice Hamilton that three men had
entered the boardroom of Irish Trust Bank and
removed documents. Mr. Justice Hamilton made the
order for the attachment of Mr. Bates, his servants
or agents from removing any papers from the bank
from the jurisdiction.
Application for attachment for contempt of Court
Mr. O'Neill said that Mr. Bates and two other men
had entered the bank at 10.30 a.m. and removed a
substantial number of documents. He suggested that
this constituted contempt of the Court Order appoint-
ing Mr. Patrick T. Shortall as provisional liquidator
who was, at the time, in possession of the premises
and documents of the Irish Trust Bank.
Mr. O'Neill said he was making the application on
behalf of the Central Bank to have Mr. Bates attached
for contempt. They were concerned that Mr. Bates
might leave the country with these documents.
Brian Loughney, in evidence, said he was manager
of Irish Trust Bank Ltd. and he was taken on by Mr.
Shortall when he was appointed provisional liquidator.
At 10.30 that morning Mr. Bates arrived through the
f r ont door accompanied by a Mr. Sean O'Shea and
another man whom he did not know. Mr. O'Shea was
chief executive or general manager of Emerald Isle
Holdays and was associated with one of Mr. Bates'
companies. The three men went up the backstairs to
the board room.
He said that when he got to the door a girl was
pushed back by Mr. Bates. He (witness) went down-
stairs and called Mr. Cooper of Coopers and Lybrand,
to tell him what had happened. Wh en he returned
Mr. Bates was on his way out with what appeared to
be a long sack containing what looked like documents.
Fidema Mundo of Mr. Shortall's (the provisional
liquidator) staff tried to stop Mr. Bates at the door
and said he had no authority to go in. He mentioned
something about seeing her in court or something
like that.
He said he heard Miss Mondo tell Mr. Bates he was
not to take the stuff, that he had no authority to do
so.
Authority to take away documents challenged
Miss Mundo, in evidence, said she was an employee
of Mr. Shortall in the Irish Tr u st Bank and she was
alone in the Board Room when Mr. Bates came in. She
did not know him. He started to collect some docu-
ments. He said he was Mr. Bates and she told him he
had no authority to take them. He said they were
personal documents and that the bank had no
authority to keep them.
Clement Cooper said, in evidence, that he was
employed by Mr. Shorthall. He was in a room below
the Board Room when Mr. Bates entered. One of the
girls came down and told him what had happened.
The girl asked him to go upstairs to see what Mr.
Bates was taking. He went up and the two men with
Mr. Bates were there.
Circumstances outlined in which documents taken
Mr. Bates, he said, was coming out with a tin box
in his hand. When he told Mr. Bates that he was not
entitled to take anything. Mr. Bates ignored him and
was putting documents into a large white bag. He also
had a blue file in his hand. He thought another man
had another white bag. They walked past him towards
the front door and he followed them down. There was
a car outside with Mrs. Bates, whom he had seen
previously, standing at the door of the car. They
threw everything through the back door of the estate
car. Mr. Cooper said he then locked the front door.
Mr. Patrick Shorthall said he had been appointed
provisional liquidator on February 10th and he was in
possession of the premises, documents and other pro-
perty. He did not authorise Mr. Bates to remove
documents or other items from the premises.
Mr. Justice Hamilton said he was satisfied that Mr.
Bates's action amounted to a deliberate contempt of
the order made. He issued an order directing the
Commission of the Garda Soochana to arrest Mr.
Bates forthwith.
Application to Supreme Court
Later in the Supreme Court, Mr. McCracken applied
for a stay of execution on the order. He outlined the
proceedings that had taken place in the High Court
and said they could be ready with an appeal within a
day or two.
They were very concerned about a winding-up
taking place in a matter that was contrary to the
wishes of all the creditors who had appeared before
the High Court. His clients had opposed the order
being made under the Central Bank Act as they felt
it did not give a proper protection or right of audi-
ence to the creditors.
Complex problem
Also, he said, they had doubts as to the capacity of
the Official Assignee's office to deal with this type
of case in which there were some 1,400 depositors or
creditors in a Bank which had offices in Manchester as
well as in Dublin. It had been suggested that could
be got around by employing outside accountants to
help the Official Assignee but, again, these would be
one degree removed from the Court and even more
removed from the creditors of the bank.
They felt that it was particularly important that the
Official Assignee should not take any steps until the
matter was finally determined by the Supreme Court.
The Court allowed the stay and said it would hear
the appeal on Friday.
Mr. Bates in Court
Later in the afternoon the High Court reassembled
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