Registrar Honohan has been removed from debt cases

[Brendan Burgess]

The Courts Service announced today that Ed Honohan will no longer be handling debt cases.
They will be handled by a judge instead.

That is a very interesting development.

https://www.thejournal.ie/high-court-master-debt-cases-4457712-Jan2019/

Brendan

 

[noproblem]

Saw that. He was on Prime Time tonight, came across as a guy who likes himself and knows everything worth knowing.

 

[Sarenco]

Not before time.

Frankly, the man is an embarrassment to the Courts Service.

 

[Delboy]

Honohan’s striking out of repossession order ‘beggars belief’, judge says
Master of the High Court criticised over decision to dismiss application by bank
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...ion-order-beggars-belief-judge-says-1.3773691

Mr Justice Garrett Simons said “it beggars belief” that Master Edmund Honohan, despite various court decisions that he had no power to do so, had continued to make orders striking out special summonses such as the one brought by Permanent TSB against Geoffrey Carr over the repossession of land and a house at Carney Commons, Carney, Co Tipperary.

“This course of conduct on the part of the Master simply serves to increase legal costs unnecessarily and to cause delay”, Mr Justice Simons said in a High Court judgment on Monday.

It had “no practical benefit whatsoever” and the Master’s order may, in some instances, give defendants a “false sense” of hope, he said.

Those defendants may mistakenly think there had been a lawful adjudication on the merits of their case and that it had been resolved in their favour.

“In truth, the only forum which can adjudicate upon an application for an order for possession, by way of special summons, is the High Court,” he said.

The Master did not have an adjudicative function in this regard. “To state the obvious, the Master does not hold judicial office,” he added.

 

[Bronte]

That's pretty shocking that Honohan's actions would lead to false hope and more legal costs.

I wonder why he stroke out the case if the man wasn't even in court and had not filed any affidavit.

 

[Delboy]

Honohan's supporters speak up for him. Another kick at the separation of powers...they weren't have as critical back in the Financial crisis when Judge's pay cuts were on the table

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/pol...-court-deeply-sinister-and-worrying-1.3775288

The decision by the President of t he High Court to remove mortgage debt cases from the Master of the High Court has been described in the Dáil as “deeply sinister and worrying”.

Master Edmund Honohan had been dealing with up to 200 cases a week involving claims over debts but last week Mr Justice Kelly removed all debt cases from the Master to be directly assigned to a High Court judge.

People Before Profit Richard Boyd Barrett said Mr Honohan had challenged the “ruthlessness of banks”.

“He called them out.”

He said the move to remove debt cases from the Master was “deeply sinister and worrying”.

Earlier Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said it was an “absolute scandal”....
....
Mr McGuinness said Edmund Honohan had “done this State a hell of a service”.

He had been “ fair to the banks, fair to the borrowers, creating a level playing field”, but had been removed from that task by the President of the High Court.

“It is an absolute scandal,” he said. “I was astonished last week to learn that the newspaper leading it knew before he did and then to try and compound the problems for the Master, certain comments made by other judges (were) put out into the public domain to discredit him.”
Mr McGuinness said Edmund Honohan had “done this State a hell of a service”.

He had been “ fair to the banks, fair to the borrowers, creating a level playing field”, but had been removed from that task by the President of the High Court.

“It is an absolute scandal,” he said. “I was astonished last week to learn that the newspaper leading it knew before he did and then to try and compound the problems for the Master, certain comments made by other judges (were) put out into the public domain to discredit him.”...
...
Asked by Leas Cheann Comhairle to refrain from criticising the judiciary Mr McGuinness said: “I’ll refrain now that I’ve condemned them completely for the carry on of them down in the Four Courts and for the manner in which they have treated that individual.”

Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice also criticised the removal of debt cases from the Master.

 

[Lone Star]

Master Edmund Honohan is one of the few good men in this country. He's far from an embarrassment to the courts - he is one of the few actually doing his job without fear or favour. shameful to state otherwise. I know. I speak first hand.

 

[Sarenco]

...he is one of the few actually doing his job without fear or favour.

He wasn't actually - he repeated acted outside his jurisdiction. Much to the embarrassment of the Courts service. To suggest otherwise is delusional.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

he is one of the few actually doing his job without fear or favour.

Hi Lone Star

Did you read the bit above

Mr Justice Garrett Simons said “it beggars belief” that Master Edmund Honohan, despite various court decisions that he had no power to do so, had continued to make orders striking out special summonses such as the one brought by Permanent TSB against Geoffrey Carr over the repossession of land and a house at Carney Commons, Carney, Co Tipperary.

Have you seen him at public presentations where he is advising anti-repossession groups on new Bills?

That would be like a High Court judge appearing in public giving advice to an anti-abortion group.

It's not the role of the Registrar to advise campaigning groups on the law.

By all means, he could make comments in his court and make recommendations to the government. But he should not have been campaigning for one side or the other.

Brendan

 

[jdwex]

He met up with likes of Ben Gilroy for dinner, and Ben is in jail for contempt of court. Doesn't help his credibility when he meets up with these right wing freeman types
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ends-meeting-with-housing-activists-m8kpwkr0l

 

[Lone Star]

Does it matter who met who....Didn't Martin Mc Guinness etc sit down with Ian Paisley etc and achieve a peace agreement.....It suits some to dislike Master Honohan and to believe what they will is their perogative. He is without doubt one of the most honourable men in Ireland - the banks and vultures may take homes - however they nor any man can ever take that away from Edmund Honohan. I leave it there gentlemen.

 

[PaddyBloggit]

Does it matter who met who

Surely it does... as a servant of the court it's his job to remain impartial and to be seen as such.

Meeting one side or another is not being impartial.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Didn't Martin Mc Guinness etc sit down with Ian Paisley

Neither were supposed to be impartial judges or public servants.

Brendan

 

[Rambo1]

And is it not the case that the very same judges are suppose to at least read the entire paperwork relating to the case to further ensure that all is proper and legal before permitting a case to proceed? and to ensure fairness for both parties? Impartiality works both ways! And this is what The Master was doing............Some call it campaigning, others call it, actually doing his job and coming up with possible solutions! BTW our taoiseach Has met up with Mr Lowry a number of times....anything for the good of the party eh!

 

[Dazzler123]

He's only had debt cases removed from him. It should be stressed that he has exactly the same level of involvement in possession cases now as he had before this change.

In terms of impartiality, if the master had dinner with a load of bankers to discuss evictions, there would be uproar so I don't see why this is any different. Particularly, as his proposed legislation Is designed to impede banks from enforcing security.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

if the master had dinner with a load of bankers to discuss evictions, there would be uproar

Hi Dazzler

That is a much better comparison.

It would make a good April Fool's story. "Master Honohan advises Irish Mortgage Federation on a new Bill to speed up evictions"

Brendan

 

[Yoga Woga]

It might not necessarily be an april fool........as it is worth pointing out that 'we do not know if the Master of the High Court has not or indeed has met with bankers to discuss evictions over dinner or indeed tapas!!' there's a thought for us all - we are not in the know...... In any event at the end of the day he seems to see the value of human lives over monetary gain....we might ask to have our coffins lined with it but we certainly can't take it with us - Is it not the case that a plethora of Irish banks overcharged customers in the tracker scandal...so the bank employees are not always right, and their barristers as they stand in the Master's Court know less about the case in their hands than Edmund Honohan - because he unlike they have read all the papers!! To be honest I'm surprised they didn't take the debt cases away from him before now...Justice Kelly must have been triple checking the HR manual! I wonder did he read it all!

 

[Dazzler123]

It might not necessarily be an april fool........as it is worth pointing out that 'we do not know if the Master of the High Court has not or indeed has met with bankers to discuss evictions over dinner or indeed tapas!!' there's a thought for us all - we are not in the know...... In any event at the end of the day he seems to see the value of human lives over monetary gain....we might ask to have our coffins lined with it but we certainly can't take it with us - Is it not the case that a plethora of Irish banks overcharged customers in the tracker scandal...so the bank employees are not always right, and their barristers as they stand in the Master's Court know less about the case in their hands than Edmund Honohan - because he unlike they have read all the papers!! To be honest I'm surprised they didn't take the debt cases away from him before now...Justice Kelly must have been triple checking the HR manual! I wonder did he read it all!

I think it would be fairly safe to say that the Master has not met with bankers over dinner! But, I don't have any inside info there.

In terms of your comment relating to valuing human lives over financial gain... In terms of court cases involving debts to a Bank, the Master does not deal with home repossessions, they are dealt with in the Circuit Court for the last few years now. Home repossessions is where the great emotional upheaval is in terms of court cases taken by Banks. Admittedly, the Master does deal with a certain type of home repossessions (well charging orders), but these are few and far between and would be the exception rather than the rule.

In terms of knowing more about the case than the barristers, he deals with over fifty cases per day. He does not read them before Court so if anything he knows as much about the case as the Banks barrister.

In terms of the general point relating to overcharging on trackers, it is clear that many, many tracker cases where compensation etc has been paid, would not win in Court as they are statute barred. Although interestingly, if a Bank sued you for judgment, raising a tracker point would not be statue barred given that it's a counterclaim. It would be interesting to see how someone in an as yet, uncompensated cohort, takes a counterclaim for a tracker in a set of judgment proceedings.

 

[Dazzler123]

Hi Dazzler

That is a much better comparison.

It would make a good April Fool's story. "Master Honohan advises Irish Mortgage Federation on a new Bill to speed up evictions"

Brendan

That would be quite the U-turn by the Master but you could see the logic in it for the "won't pay" cohort.

 

[RedOnion]

would not win in Court as they are statute barred.

I don't believe that's 100% accurate. Where the mortgage is still in place, as it's a breach of a still active contract, it cannot be statute barred. There are several other reasons where they wouldn't have won in court, but statute of limitations isn't the main one.