The High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has dismissed a claim by the estate of the late Liam Burke seeking a share of proceeds from the 2016 sale of a commercial property in Doncaster, ruling that the full net balance of £679,529 belongs to business associate Patrick McDermott. The judgment, delivered by Huddleston J on 31 March 2026, centred on the validity of declarations of trust signed in 2014 and whether subsequent correspondence between the parties created a binding agreement overriding those documents.

Liam Burke, a civil engineer, died on 15 May 2018. His widow, Eileen Burke, brought the claim as personal representative of his estate. McDermott, who is married to Mrs Burke's niece, had invested £250,000 in a group of companies connected to the deceased in exchange for a 50% stake. Those companies included De Burca Properties Ltd, a special purpose vehicle that held a property at Plumtree Industrial Estate, Harworth. That property sold in January 2016 for £1.2 million, generating net proceeds of £879,528.86 after costs and the discharge of a Lloyds Bank charge. A further £200,000 was transferred to another group company to meet revenue liabilities, and approximately £82,000 was used to discharge a personal guarantee held by Ulster Bank in respect of the deceased. The remaining £679,529 was paid into McDermott's personal account by the deceased himself.

The plaintiff's case, as amended during proceedings, accepted the 50/50 ownership structure and sought a declaration that half the net proceeds - £339,764.93 - were held on trust for the estate, plus interest at 8% from February 2019, bringing the total claim to £520,652.56. McDermott's position was that any entitlement by the estate to a share was conditional on the deceased's unexplained withdrawals from company accounts being reconciled. Accountants Harcourt had written to both directors in April 2018 identifying unusual payments totalling £610,852, including debits from Bank of Ireland accounts, credit card transactions, and cheque payments.

The court found that three declarations of trust were executed by Liam Burke on 20 January 2014 in the presence of solicitor Sean Flanagan, who gave evidence confirming Burke had acknowledged awareness of the nature of the documents before signing. Huddleston J concluded the declarations were freely and validly executed, finding no cogent evidence to the contrary. The declarations had the legal effect of giving McDermott 100% beneficial control over the shareholdings in F&B Trenchless Solutions Ltd, De Burca Properties Ltd, and De Burca Plant Ltd.

The court addressed whether post-death correspondence, including a July 2018 email from McDermott to the plaintiff and subsequent exchanges in early 2019, had created a new agreement superseding the trust declarations. Huddleston J rejected that argument, finding McDermott credible on the point and noting that Mrs Burke lacked personal knowledge of the underlying arrangements. The court found that McDermott had paid interest on the 50% sum for a period but stopped when he concluded the unexplained withdrawals would never be accounted for.

Huddleston J found that the 50% potentially due to Burke's estate was subject to a condition - namely the reconciliation of the company accounts - which was never fulfilled. The deceased died before providing explanations, the companies entered liquidation, and no satisfactory accounting was ever produced. On that basis the court held the full net proceeds were properly retained by McDermott. An argument advanced on behalf of the plaintiff that the trust declarations were rendered ineffective by the subsequent winding-up of the SPV was rejected without authority being offered in support.

The court dismissed the claim in its entirety and ordered that the disputed funds belong absolutely to McDermott, free from any claim by the estate. Costs were awarded in favour of the defendant on the basis that costs follow the event.