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I have a question for the list arising out of an important news story in Ireland at the moment.

Last March, RTE (the national tv and radio station) were about to break the story that various branches of the National Irish Bank had imposed excess charges and fees on customer bank accounts. NIB sued RTE for breach of confidence, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court (see NIB v RTE (Supreme Court, unreported, 20 March 1998)) which ruled that the proposed disclosure was in the public interest. RTE then broadcast a series of allegations that NIB The bank commissioned a consultancy, Arthur Andersen, to undertake an investigation of the matter. At a press conference yesterday, the bank published that report, and its chief executive, Mr Grahame Savage, undertook to return the excess charges and fees, plus interest.

Thus, for example, the front page of the Irish Times today contains the headline "NIB to pay £131,166 for excess charges", and the story, by Colm Keena, continues that

"National Irish Bank is to return £131,166 plus interest to 370 customers after two inquiries into allegations of improper interest- and fee-loading by the bank. Its chief executive, Mr Grahame Savage, yesterday offered the bank's "unreserved apologies" to the customers.

(snip)

Mr Savage was speaking at a press briefing at which details of an Arthur Andersen report on interest-loading by the bank were disclosed. The report dealt with interest charges at five branches

(snip)

The periods examined varied from branch to branch,

(snip)

The periods are those referred to in an RTE report last March, which first alleged interest-loading by the bank."

For those who are interested, the full story is at

http://www.irish-times.com/irish-times/paper/1998/ 0805/fro1.html

(And I must declare that I am not now, and have never been, a customer of the NIB)

My question is this; given that the bank took RTE to the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent the broadcast of the story, they might equally have decided not to return the money at all, or to return it without interest; if they had done so, and a customer of the bank had decided to sue for the return of the money plus interest, would that have been an action for restitution of an unjust enrichment, and if so, what would the ground for restitution (the unjust factor) have been ?

Many thanks

Eoin

EOIN O'DELL
Barrister, Lecturer in Law

Trinity College
Dublin 2
Ireland

ph (+ 353 - 1) 608 1178
fax (+ 353 - 1) 677 0449

Live Long and Prosper !!
(All opinions are personal; no legal responsibility whatsoever is accepted.)