THE Mahon tribunal is leading a list of creditors lining up for a slice of the estate of the late Liam Lawlor.

Lawyers representing the tribunal last month filed an “intent to apply” with the probate office to ensure they receive notification of the former Fianna Fail TD’s will, once it is registered.

Judgments handed down by the High Court against the Lawlor home in Somerton, Lucan, Co Dublin, already amount to more than €850,000 and have yet to be settled. Lawlor was killed in a car crash in Moscow last October. The 61-year-old was survived by his wife Hazel, three sons and a daughter.

A member of the Mahon tribunal’s legal team said last week that it had made a “precautionary” move to “protect” judgments amounting to €500,000, which it has secured against the Lawlor family home. The tribunal intends to pursue the Lawlor estate for the full amount of legal costs due to it after the former TD unsuccessfully challenged proceedings in the High and Supreme courts in 2001 and 2002.

Dermot Coyne, Lawlor’s former solicitor, and Seamus Ross of Menolly Homes also have outstanding judgments against the Somerton property.

In November 2003, Coyne secured a Well Charging Order of €275,000 on the Lawlor home to recover the debt. This allows him to compel sale of the Somerton property, then valued at between €3m and €4m.

Coyne is owed €275,000 for legal fees when he represented Lawlor at the planning tribunal.

Coyne did not want to comment last week on whether he has been in negotiations with representatives of the Lawlor estate to settle his case.

In 2004, Lawlor said he had transferred his house to his wife. The validity of this transfer was called into question both by the tribunal and by Coyne. The order secured by Coyne names both Liam and Hazel Lawlor as defendants.

The Examiner’s Office, which is administering the order, said it would not be in a position to take further action until Lawlor’s will had been registered with the probate Officeand it would be able to deal with a representative of the estate. “We have to ensure, on behalf of the court, that if the property is to be sold it is carried out in a proper manner, but we have made no substantive progress in relation to that order simply because Mr Lawlor is deceased,” said the Examiner’s Office.

“We certainly wouldn’t allow any substantive progress without representation of his estate because if someone is to make a claim there would be nobody there on his estate’s behalf to defend or to say if that debt is paid.”

If a grant of probate is issued on the will, the Examiner’s Office will advertise for creditors who have judgments against Lawlor’s property. Any creditors who have secured a judgment against the house are entitled to make a claim.

This would include the tribunal and Ross, who has a judgment for €154,000 against it.

The Examiner’s Office will then decide which creditors get paid first.

In most cases, priority is given to creditors based on the date of their judgments against a property, with the earliest creditors receiving the highest priority.

The tribunal was unable to say last week whether the possibility that Lawlor’s will would be registered in another country could affect its pursuit of costs against the estate.

However, it said it was confident that the judgments against the Somerton property would still be enforceable.

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