Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:50 AM
Jun 20, 2017 News
By Rehanna Ramsay
Some five years after it was filed, a matter involving Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited and
Precision Woodworking over an alleged breach of contract will finally be heard in the High Court.
The matter which was filed on May 15, 2012 before Commercial Court Judge Rishi Persaud will now be heard before Justice Navindra Singh.
During a hearing yesterday, Justice Singh set a date from the commencement of trial of the matter.
The case is set to be heard in October. The date for trial was set pursuant to a preliminary ruling by Justice Singh.
According to court documents, the original action filed in 2012 by the principals of Precision Woodworking outlined a breach of a contractual agreement between the Woodworking Company and Republic Bank.
A synopsis of the matter outlined that the Woodworking Company had secured certain loans via Republic Bank but subsequently fell in arrears in their loan servicing.
Republic Bank, as part of the process of recovering the loan, had appointed a receiver to secure assets of Precision by way of notice of a Court Order in June 2011.
However, Precision Woodworking through its Directors Rustum Bulkan and Ronald Bulkan subsequently approached the court on allegations that Republic Bank had breached their agreement for settling the matter and unlawfully appointed a receiver.
According to the court documents Attorney- at- Law Nigel Hughes is the Counsel for Precision Woodworking and Attorneys –at- Law, Robin Stoby, S.C and Tariq Khan are the Counsel for Kashir Khan (the receiver) and Republic Bank.
The case was originally set to be heard five years ago before Justice Rishi Persaud but the trial never commenced due to several delays at the preliminary stage.
Kaieteur News understands there were in excess of 60 interlocutory appearances of the case before Justice Persaud but the matter never went to trial due to a number of reasons; among them is a failure by the second named defendant (Republic Bank) to file witness statements.
The Judge thereafter recused himself and the matter was reassigned to Justice Singh in October, last year.
At the preliminary stage of the hearing before Justice Singh, a summons was filed by Precision Woodworking to have several paragraphs of the initial statement of claims which were struck out by the original presiding Judge, restored.
In affidavit in support of the summons, the plaintiffs noted that the decision to strike out various paragraphs of the claim was prejudicial, premature and without foundation in law.
They therefore sought an Order of the Court to restore paragraphs of the statement of claim.
In his written ruling delivered on June 6, last, Justice Singh wrote that based on a review of the file, records and the synopses of the case it is ordered that the original claims be restored.
The Judge explained that during the time before Justice Persaud, the Defendants (Republic Bank) had not filed witness statements despite several orders by the Court directing them to do so.
The decision by the Judge outlined that “it is surprising that a preclusion order was not made against the defendants in view of their continuous refusal to comply with the Orders of the Court.”
“Notwithstanding the fact that the Defendants had not filed witness statements, it appears that Justice Persaud engaged in a pre-trial conference whereby he sought to define the issues that the Court would want addressed during a trial and made the order/s striking out certain claims.”
Additionally the Judge noted that it must be understood that this matter has not been set before a different Court; “this is the same Court, only differently constituted.”
On those grounds, the order was made to have all specifics of the Plaintiffs original Statement of Claim dated September 20, 2012 restored.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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