Shareholder fails to make out case of objective bias or premature judgment against assessor

Company law – judicial review - challenge concerning the conduct of an assessor – shareholder in an Irish bank – shares in the bank transferred to the Minister for Finance - Minister appointed an Assessor to determine the amount of compensation (if any) payable to former shareholders in respect of the transferred shares and the associated rights extinguished by such transfer – Regulations governing the acts of the assessor – relevant legislation - required the Assessor to come to provisional conclusions about the level of compensation to be paid to former shareholders – correspondence leading to the challenge – large amount of information sought – requests for information refused - – whether all of the information sought by the shareholder is material which is necessary to allow him to make a meaningful submission to the assessor – expert evidence – tone of affidavit – shareholder has not discharged the burden which he carries to establish that his witnesses have the experience, training or knowledge to act as an expert witness with regard to the valuation of the shareholding in the Bank - no evidence before the Court to establish that the information sought by the shareholder is necessary in order to allow him to make a meaningful submission to the Assessor – not unreasonable to refuse information request – not disproportionate to refuse information request – decision to refuse an extension of time was not unreasonable - prejudgment – open to the assessor to reach a conclusion at the time of his interim report as to the solvency position of the bank – one of the factors considered – all other matters taken into consideration – no objective bias – premature judgment - judicial review refused.