W&R Morrogh Stockbrokers - High Court Cases

High Court Cases taken by the Receiver and Manager

July 2002

On 22 July 2002, the Receiver and Manager filed an Affidavit with the High Court summarizing the difficulties experienced in relation to the distribution of the assets of W&R Morrogh and ownership of certain of the stocks and shares held by or to the order of the firm.

 

January 2003

The matter came before the Court on 28 January 2003 and concluded on 4 February 2003.

 

6 May 2003 - Judgement

The Judge, Mr Justice Murphy delivered his judgement on 6 May 2003. The written judgement runs to 56 pages. The Judge concluded that the clients who had purchases contemporaneously appropriated to them and recorded in the books of the firm or of the Nominee were entitled to ownership and where necessary to transfer of those shares to them. The Court did not favour a general pooling of assets.

 

20 May 2003

On 20 May 2003, the Court considered a further report submitted by the Receiver. This report dealt primarily with the issue of the fees, costs and expenses of the Receiver. As there were insufficient non-client assets, the Receiver sought directions as to how the costs of the application brought by him and the other costs, fees and expenses of the Receiver and Manager were to be apportioned as between the different client assets of the firm.

 

31 July 2003 - Judgement

There was a further judgement by the High Court on 31 July 2003 in relation to the overall costs of the Receiver.  This indicated that, given the insufficiency of non-client assets, the Receiver could access client assets in order to recover his costs as receiver, which were substantial. The effect of the court ruling in relation to the bearing of Receivership costs by the client assets was estimated (specified by the Administrator) to add a further €5.5 million to his earlier estimate of €5.2 million total compensation and costs.

 

9 September 2003

The Order summarising the judgments issued by Mr. Justice Murphy was perfected on 9 September. Twenty one days was allowed for any appeals.  Anglo Irish Bank Limited and Anglo Irish Nominees Limited ("Anglo Irish") lodged an Appeal.

 

14 May 2004

The Receiver issued an Application, which was heard on 21 June 2004, requesting the High Court to approve the terms of a proposed settlement with Anglo Irish.  The Receiver was advised that the Appeal lodged by Anglo Irish was likely to succeed and in those circumstances settlement negotiations took place between the Receiver and Anglo Irish.  If the Supreme Court appeal succeeded, Anglo Irish would recover the amount claimed as well as legal costs.  The settlement negotiations concluded with the result that the Anglo Irish parties settled the claim for a sum of €450,000 inclusive of costs (significantly lower than the value of the claim).

 

21 June 2004

On 21 June 2004, the High Court approved the proposed settlement with Anglo Irish and it was implemented accordingly.

 

15 July 2004

On 2 July 2004, the Receiver applied to the High Court to give effect to paragraph 13 of the Order of Mr Justice Murphy of 31 July 2003.  The application dealt with, inter alia, an Order giving liberty to the Receiver to sell such proportions and amounts of shares held by and to the order of the firm as was necessary to pay the costs, fees and expenses of the Receiver and certain representative Notice Parties and various Orders affecting the sale of shares. 

On 15 July 2004, the High Court granted the Receiver the reliefs for which he had applied, subject to some minor adjustments.

 

18 January 2011

The court heard an application from the Receiver for clarification about the valuation of shares sold without the authorisation of clients and for direction that clients do not have a claim against the firm (and therefore the Receiver) in respect of their contribution to the cost of the Receivership. Judgement was reserved.

 

21 March 2011

Mr Justice Murphy gave judgement regarding the valuation of the shares sold without the authorisation of clients. The shares should be valued by the most frequently occurring value (the "mode" value) during the periods from the time of acquisition of the shares to the date of the Receivership.

 

19 February 2014

At the request of the receiver, Mr Tom Grace, the High Court approved a final dividend of 13cent in the euro to be paid to clients of W&R Morrogh. That brought the total dividend paid to 43cent in the euro.  The Court also set 31 October 2014 as the date when the partnership will be dissolved and the receivership will end.