Legal battle between Quinn family and Anglo is settled

The Quinn children denied liability for around €415m under guarantees in relation to loans advanced by Anglo to Quinn companies

The long-running legal battle between Seán Quinn's family and the former Anglo Irish Bank has been settled in its entirety, the High Court has heard.

The five children had denied liability for around €415 million under guarantees in relation to loans advanced by Anglo to Quinn companies.

The children had claimed they were put under undue influence by their father in relation to the guarantees.

Settlement talks began following an application to be allowed to make this claim as part of their legal case.

The High Court ruled against them last week.

Anglo's successor, IBRC, counter claimed that the Quinns had been engaged in a multi-million euro conspiracy to put international property assets beyond the reach of the bank.

Senior Counsel Bernard Dunleavy for the Quinns, told the court this morning that the issues between the parties had been resolved.

As part of the settlement judgment is to be entered against each of the five children, Ciara, Colette, Brenda, Aoife and Sean Quinn junior in the sum of just over €88 million each.

But the judgments are to be stayed on terms agreed between the parties.

The Quinn family issued a statement saying "the Quinn family are happy to be able to move on and put the litigation with Anglo (now IBRC) behind them.  

"We would like to thank our family members, friends and legal teams for their support. The Quinn family will not be making any further comment."

In a statement, IBRC said the Quinn family had provided the bank with full disclosure and would relinquish any entitlement to any of the assets that were the subject of IBRC's security.

It said it viewed the settlement as being in the best interests of creditors, in circumstances where it had received full disclosure from the Quinn family and where the very lengthy litigation that had begun in 2011, would be brought to a conclusion.

Final orders in the conspiracy case are expected in court tomorrow.

Issues in relation to former Quinn Group executives, Dara O'Reilly and Liam McCaffrey, who were joined as third parties to the case and who have asked for the proceedings to be dismissed against them, will be dealt with in June.  The court will also deal with outstanding costs issues at that stage as well.

The court dismissed witness summonses issued against former Anglo executives, David Drumm and Pat Whelan, after an application by their solicitor, Michael Staines.

Mr Justice Garrett Simons said it was very sensible of the parties to have reached an agreement.

The case was due to take six months.