The Seychelles’ Supreme Court on Monday extended the suspension of a judgment ordering Vijay Construction to pay Eastern European Engineering Limited almost €20 million as compensation for breaking the terms of a contract for the development of Savoy Hotel.
The lawyer for Vijay Construction, Bernard Georges, told the press that the construction company has brought two applications to be considered by the court on Wednesday.
“One of them is that we are asking for what we lawyers call ‘leave’ to appeal against the condition that the court imposed to the Court of Appeal,” said George
He added that the Court of Appeal last Friday took the view that “I could not come directly to them as I have to seek the permission of the Supreme Court. The appeals court argued that they have no jurisdiction to hear the case without the seeking permission of the Supreme Court. This is a technical issue.”
Justice Ellen Carolus who is presiding over the case suspended the execution of the judgment under a condition while Vijay Construction furthers his case before the Court of Appeal on Friday July 24.
The condition was that the construction company should provide the court with a bank guarantee equating to the sum of the judgment of €20 million within the period of 14 days.
Georges said that the other application “is asking the court to change the condition that it has imposed due to the inability of the construction company to meet these conditions.”
On the question as to why Vijay Construction has not been able to provide the guarantee, Georges said that “the bankers of the construction company has maybe looked at the circumstances and have found that they will not be able to provide such guarantee.”
The Eastern European Engineering, a company registered in Seychelles and a subsidiary of holding company Guta group with headquarters in Russia, is the owner and operator of the Savoy Resort and Spa located in the northern Mahe district of Beau Vallon.
The company hired Vijay to carry out construction work for Savoy Hotel in 2011 through six contracts and all of them had similar arbitration clauses, which provided that any dispute, disagreement or claim would be settled by arbitration in Paris.
The company filed a Request for Arbitration in September 2012 before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris and received a sole arbitrator award in November 2014.
The costs to be incurred by Vijay Construction for breaking the contract were never paid partly because the award was not enforceable until Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, became party to the 1958 New York Convention earlier this year.
Source: Seychelles News Agency
AUTHOR: Seychelles News Agency
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