Quinn to defend himself against Anglo

Seán Quinn made an unexpected first court appearance on Monday in the action by his wife and five children aimed at avoiding liability for loans of €2.34bn made by Anglo Irish Bank to Quinn group companies. Describing himself as a "simple farmer's son", the bankrupt businessman whose disclosure in 2007 of having a 24% stake in Anglo allegedly led to an unlawful strategy by the bank to "shovel" hundreds of millions into propping up its share price, said he wanted to personally defend the bank's claim that he has a liability to it. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation has denied such claims and has joined Mr Quinn, Dara O'Reilly, chief executive of Quinn Group (NI) Ltd, and Liam McCaffrey, former Quinn group finance director, as third parties for the purposes of claiming indemnity against them should the family succeed. The complex proceedings are still at pre-trial stage and Mr Quinn sat quietly at the rear of Court Number One of the Four Courts on Monday until the action, No 22 in the Commercial Court list, was reached after midday. When the case was called, Mr Justice Peter Kelly read a letter sent to him by Mr Quinn asking to be allowed personally defend the case and called Mr Quinn to sit in the front bench alongside lawyers for Anglo. As the Official Assignee in bankruptcy is not defending the case on behalf of Mr Quinn, he needs court leave to defend himself and Anglo will oppose that. Mr Quinn said Anglo, having joined him to the case, "now doesn't want me". As "a major part" of the Anglo-Quinn situation over the last ten years, he "would have thought it was useful for the court to hear my views". When the judge said the bank disputed whether he could appear, Mr Quinn said: "I don't know, judge, the way I see it, Anglo joined me, I filed a defence and I want to stand over it." The judge said an interesting legal issue arose whether Mr Quinn could do so. He fixed Mr Quinn's application for hearing on March 15 and directed the relevant legal documents be served at his address in Co Cavan. When the judge asked Mr Quinn how long he required to prepare for the hearing on his entitlement to defend, the latter said a week to ten days would be adequate. "I'm a simple farmer's son," he said, to which the judge said: "I'm a simple man myself."