Sean Dunne v. Richard M. Coan, et al.

It is an issue of profound national importance that a Bankruptcy Trustee seeks to recover property not in a Debtor’s estate when such real property, located in a foreign nation (Ireland), was never owned by the Debtor as a matter of foreign (Irish) law. Under the rulings below, no property established in a trust by any United States citizen or any person who relocates to reside in the United States is safe from illegal seizure by a Bankruptcy Trustee.

It is an issue of profound national importance that a Trust created in Ireland in 2005 for the benefit of estate planning is ignored in 2015 in order to assert a fraudulent conveyance claim years after the statute of limitations period for such a claim has expired (i.e. a 2015 claim cannot look back to 2005 or 2006 to challenge trusts created at that time). Under the rulings below, any trust created at any point in time in the United States or worldwide is now exposed to seizure from a trustee in bankruptcy in the United States and the limitations period under the Bankruptcy Code and state law is illusory.

A District Court should not leave key questions of legal or beneficial ownership and trusteeship of real property in Ireland to a lay jury. Such questions of Irish law should be determined by the Court pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 44.1.

It is an issue of profound national importance that the District Court and the Court of Appeals failed to apply the principle of comity to the Irish courts’ determination that Sean Dunne did not own any portion of Walford