Discovery Of Loan Purchase Price Ordered In Ireland Where Unjust Enrichment Pleaded

In a recent decision, the Irish High Court ordered a loan purchaser to produce documents relating to the price paid for loans (Promontoria (Aran) Ltd v. Sheehy [2019] IEHC 613).

The Irish courts have generally acknowledged the commercial sensitivity attaching to contractual documents entered into as part of a loan sale transaction. The courts have held that a creditor, in seeking judgment, is entitled to rely on redacted documents, provided such parts of the documents as remain unredacted establish the transfer of the loans. The courts have said that a borrower needs to present some "concrete argument" as to why the court should order documents to be unredacted. It is not enough for a borrower to say that there might be something in the redacted portions of the document which would undermine the transfer. That is what is classically termed a "fishing expedition".

The Sheehy decision does not disturb those general principles. In that case, the question of the price paid for the loans is potentially relevant to the issues in dispute, due to the fact that, in addition to claiming judgment as a matter of contract, Promontoria also argued that it was entitled to repayment of the monies that were lent under the doctrines of restitution and unjust enrichment. The borrower argued that restitution and unjust enrichment did not apply because Promontoria had not made a "payment of...