Musician Jim Corr's financial affairs are in a state of freefall, his lawyers have told the Commercial Court. The 48-year-old has taken the stand to be cross examined by ACC Bank's legal team about his assets.
2 years ago he consented to a €1.4 million summary judgment order against him by the bank over a loan advanced to him and others in 2004 to buy lands at Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny.
ACC Bank says €778,000 is still outstanding on the loan and their lawyers are now questioning the musician about his financial affairs. They are focusing in on the purported sale of a property in Northern Ireland.
Jim Corr has told the court he was under a huge amount of stress when he sold the apartment to a friend of his sisters who deals in distressed assets. His former business partner had abandoned operations leaving him ''struggling ever since to put out the fires'', he said.
He met the buyer at a dinner party in Majorca and told him 'I've everything to sell' during a conversation about the state of the global system. He said the property was purchased a month later.
Bernard Dunleavy, BL, for ACC, earlier told the court that Mr. Corr continued to live at a property after a purported sale in 2010. He said it is impossible to say if any rent was paid.
The musician's lawyers earlier tried to adjourn today's cross examination but the application was turned down by Mr. Justice Peter Kelly. Ross Aylward, BL, said his client's finances are in a 'state of freefall and chaotic but they have nonetheless been transparent throughout'.
He said the musician was taken aback to hear his former solicitors had previously told the court that his affairs were not in order.
Refusal to put back the case
Jim Corr has worked with Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank who are larger creditors than ACC Bank and there has been no complaint as to the transparency of his affairs, he said.
His lawyers tried to adjourn the case on the basis that the musician only had 2 working days to prepare for today because of a delay in serving him with court documents at his private gated community.
Mr. Justice Peter Kelly refused to put the case back as the material within those documents has been available to the musician since February.
The bank's lawyers said any adjournment would be conditional on a sworn undertaking by Jim Corr that he would not apply to adjudicate himself a bankrupt before the case return to court.
This was refused by his lawyers who earlier told the court that while Jim Corr's finances are in a state of freefall they have nonetheless been trasnparent throughout.
