A couple found to have accepted a “loan” rather than a “gift” of €280,000 from a former friend must repay that sum immediately plus interest, a High Court judge has ruled.

Fidelma ‘Della’ Kerrigan is also entitled to the legal costs of the eight day case brought by her against Jacqueline and John Keenaghan, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy said. Those costs are expected to be a six figure sum.

Outside court, Della Kerrigan said she was “glad it was all over” but “deeply disappointed” at the events which led to the case.

Ms Kerrigan gave the €280,000 to the Keenaghan’s in August 2010 out of a €750,000 compensation award made to her two weeks earlier for serious injuries suffered by her in a road accident in which her father died. She is now on social protection payments.

Earlier this month, Ms Justice Murphy ruled  the €280,000 given by the “gullible and naive” Ms Kerrigan  was a loan sought by Ms Keenaghan with no specified repayment date.

She rejected arguments by the Keenaghan’s it was an unsolicited “gift”.

The “real tragedy” in the case stemmed from the Keenaghans’ reaction when Ms Kerrigan sought repayment in 2014 of the loan, the judge said.

She accepted evidence of Della Kerrigan and her sister Celine that, in the months leading up to the settlement,Mrs Keenaghan  broached the possibility of Della helping her out of the settlement proceeds and assured Della she would pay back “every penny”.

The court had heard that Jacqueline Keenaghan’s architect husband’s business was in serious difficulty due to the recession, and that she was very friendly with the sisters.

Ms Kerrigan had agreed in principle to help out her “dear friend”, the judge said.

Jacqueline Keenaghan’s denial of the “true circumstances” of the loan ruptured this friendship and the Kerrigans saw the denial for what it was, an enormous breach of trust, the judge said.

She was confident any reasonable repayment proposal from the couple would have found favour with Ms Kerrigan even if spread over “many, many years”.

The Keenaghans, she noted, had paid off all their debts, financed their children’s education, retrained as counsellors and psychotherapists and opened a new business. 

When the case returned for final orders today, the judge granted judgment for the €280,000, plus interest at 8pc from 2014 when Ms Kerrigan first sought repayment.

She also awarded costs of the entire hearing to Ms Kerrigan after rejecting a plea from Desmond Murphy SC, for the Keenaghans, for “some little mercy” and to award costs of six rather than eight days.

She refused to put a stay on her orders pending consideration by the Keenaghans on whether to bring any appeal.

Patrick Keane SC, instructed by Aisling McGowan of Damien Tansey solicitors, for Ms Kerrigan, objected to any stay.

Ms Kerrigan had given the loan in 2010, asked for it back in 2014 and is still waiting for her money, he said.

She was living in very poor financial circumstances, dependent on social protection payments and her difficulties should not be unnecessarily continued.

The judge noted she had urged the parties to try and resolve the matter before any court decision but that did not happen. The whole event was before her  because of Ms Keenaghan’s breach of trust, she said.

The court should not “prolong the agony” any longer and the Keenaghans had not advanced any credible legal argument as to why a stay should be granted, she ruled.

Outside court, Damien Tansey said the Keenaghans had succeeded in transferring their financial problems to Ms Kerrigan’s shoulders.  

Her situation was “dreadful” and she was utterly dependent on social welfare, he said.

The judge had highlighted the Keenaghans had significant valuable property assets and, if they did not pay the amount of judgment, his side would register a charge against those assets, he added.

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