A €280,000 sum given to a Donegal husband and wife by their “dear” and “naive” friend was a loan sought by the wife with no specified repayment date and not an unsolicited “gift”, a High Court judge has ruled.
The “real tragedy” stems from the reaction of Jacqueline and John Keenaghan when Fidelma ‘Della’ Kerrigan sought repayment in 2014 of the loan made by her in August 2010, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy said.
The €280,000 was one-third of a €750,000 compensation sum secured by Ms Kerrigan about two weeks earlier over serious personal injuries suffered by her in a road accident in 2002 in which her father died.
The judge accepted evidence of Della Kerrigan and her sister Celine that, in the months leading up to the settlement, Jacqueline Keenaghan, whose architect husband’s business was in serious difficulty due to the financial recession and who was very friendly with the sisters, broached the possibility of Della helping her out of the settlement proceeds and assured Della she would pay back “every penny”.
Ms Kerrigan had agreed in principle to help out her “dear friend” and Celine was an enthusiastic supporter of her sister’s decision to do.
Rather than acknowledge their debt, the Keenaghan’s chose to deny it and, thereby, “at least by implication”, cast doubt on the honesty of Della and her sister Celine, the judge said.
“It was Jacqueline Keenaghan’s denial of the true circumstances of this loan that ruptured this friendship,” she said.
“The Kerrigans saw this denial for what it was, an enormous breach of trust”.
For full story see https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/money-given-to-donegal-couple-by-naive-friend-was-loan-not-gift-court-rules-37714146.html