The estranged wife of a dairy farmer who sold off his entire herd with an estimated value of between €500,000 to €600,000 without telling her has applied for a court order freezing the man’s assets.
At the Family Law District Court, solicitor Shíofra Hassett told Judge Catherine Ryan her client has made a Section 35 application under the Family Law Act 1995 to the Circuit Court in relation to the dissipation of marital assets.
A Section 35 “freezing order” application prevents a spouse from selling property, transferring money out of bank accounts, or shifting investments to avoid paying a settlement or maintenance, pending finalisation of a case.
Hassett told the judge about the Circuit Court freezing-order proceedings by the woman against her estranged husband when applying for an adjournment of a hearing for the woman’s separate application for a maintenance order before the District Court.
In September, Judge Adrian Harris granted an interim maintenance order for the farmer to pay maintenance of €300 to the woman and €60, per week, for one dependent child.
The woman was seeking an interim maintenance order of €500 per week pending a full hearing in the case. Hassett told the judge that the hearing into the full maintenance order can be adjourned on consent with the other side in the case.
Hassett said that in the Circuit Court, in response to the Section 35 application, Judge Francis Comerford “has made certain directions and has given time for a replying affidavit to our application”.
Hassett said the Circuit Court proceedings have been adjourned to November 25th.
In response, the judge said Hassett’s client has sought a Section 35 application to freeze assets where there are matters of a financial nature to be addressed in the Circuit Court.
The estranged couple were not present in court for Hassett’s application to adjourn the maintenance order proceedings.
At a hearing in September, the court heard the dairy farmer was “at breaking point” when selling off his entire herd without telling his estranged wife.
At the interim maintenance order hearing at the Family Law Court, the farmer told Judge Harris, “I disposed of the cattle because I was not able to do it any more.” The man said he is at his “wits’ end” since his marriage broke down.
In evidence, the wife told the court her estranged husband had “made a decision to sell the cows without telling anyone”.
She said that, during their marriage, “I worked seven days a week, milked cows twice a day. I did the cooking, the cleaning, and I reared the children.”
She said: “We always made money, despite drought, Covid, rains and storms knocking down buildings.”
The farmer told the court he was not in a position to pay an interim order.
The farmer told Hassett in September that he has “lost everything” with the sale of his dairy herd, “and I did not take that decision lightly, to watch my whole livelihood be brought away in a number of lorries after 38 years of work”.
Solicitor for the husband, Máiréad Doyle, said her client has significant assets but also significant liabilities, with a debt of €1.2 million attached to the farm. She said it costs €244,000 per annum to service the bank debt.
The farmer told the court: “We have come to a point that, if I don’t do something now, we will end up with nothing.”
He said: “This is the hardest time of my life – I have walked away from it. I haven’t slept for weeks – two or three hours every night.”
The man told the court his estranged wife “didn’t want her name on any of the loans. She is not liable for any of the loans – I am liable for all the loans.”