The Commercial Court has recalled its order to dismiss two cases in which Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) sought to have owner of Buddy’s International Hotel Omprakash Shivraj pay some $58 million for the supply of electricity, a GPL press statement yesterday said.
In response to an article, headlined ‘GPL $58M claims against Buddy’s dismissed for want of prosecution’, published in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News, the power company yesterday stated that the order to dismiss the claims has been recalled. GPL, the press release said, is “making every effort to ensure that all monies owed to it are paid in full”.
The cases were heard in part by Justice James Bovell-Drakes and Justice Rishi Persaud, the latter of whom dismissed both suits on March 18, 2009 for want of prosecution. Justice Persaud could not be contacted yesterday to confirm the recall of the order and when it was issued. However, this newspaper was reliably informed that the order was recalled by the court yesterday.
GPL had been claiming debts owed for electricity supplied to Buddy’s International Hotel, which was owned by Shivraj at the time the writs were filed.
According to the GPL press release, on February18, 2009 when the case was called in the Commercial Court, Shivraj’s attorney “confirmed to the court that [the defendant] had agreed, in principle, to settle GPL’s claim”. It said the case was then adjourned to March 18, 2009 “for terms of settlement to be prepared by the parties and [submitted] to the court”.
According to GPL, “the matter did not appear on the commercial list” on March 18, 2009 but the Buddy’s defence attorney, who presented himself before the court, allegedly failed to inform the court that GPL had already delivered draft terms of settlement. Further, GPL said that the defence attorney failed to indicate that he had not formally responded to the terms of settlement, “and the court therefore dismissed the claim”.
The court was informed of GPL’s position sometime later and “recalled its order”, the press release said, adding that the action is therefore still extant and has been fixed to continue on April 21, before Justice Persaud.
Stabroek News viewed documentation of both claims where the last action recorded was the dismissal of both suits last month. Records of Action No.444/08-CD (where GPL claims just over $50 million) and Action No.445/08-CD (where GPL claims just over $8 million) show that on March 18, the defence attorney had appeared in the Commercial Court before Justice Persaud and the matters were dismissed for want of prosecution.
In one statement of claim, GPL said Buddy’s owed $50,131,881, being the balance of an amount due and owing for electricity supplied up to January 2008, in addition to interest and associated court costs. At the time of the filing of the suit in April 2008, GPL said, it had been supplying Buddy’s International with electricity from the start of its operations in February 2007, for which it received a single payment of $3,459,547, despite repeated demands for outstanding debt. As a result, GPL billed Shivraj for $39, 417,217, which represented the total energy and demand charges due to GPL up to January 2008 and $10,714,664 constituting a non-refundable capital contribution. Shivraj, however, did not pay the bill.
A separate court action filed in May, 2008 claimed $8,893,290 for electricity supplied.
When contacted on Tuesday for comment on the dismissal of the cases, GPL Public Relations Officer Ms Adams told Stabroek News that she was not in a position to comment and directed the newspaper to the company’s Corporate Secretary. However, an employee within the Corporate Secretary’s department said that they could not say anything on the matter.