Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 07, 2021 News
Kaieteur News – Luis Antonio Corniel, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, has sued a locally operated oil and gas firm as well as the Guyana Seafarers & General Workers Union to recover in excess of $5M in salaries owed to him.
According to court documents drafted by attorneys of Mohabir A. Nandlall and Associates, Corniel has filed a Fixed Date Application (FDA) in the High Court to recover various sums of money amounting in excess of $5M in salaries owed to him from Dorwain Bess of Alpha Petroleum Trading Inc. and Simone Fortune, of Guyana Seafarers & General Workers Union.
Fortune was recently mixed up in a criminal case and has since been placed on bail for collecting millions to train persons to work in the field via a fake oil and gas school.
However in this instance, Fortune has been named as a respondent to a lawsuit which seeks to recover over US$ 4,627 as salary due, owing and payable pursuant to a written agreement made and entered into with Corniel, the company owned by Bess and union which she represents.
According to court papers, the applicant is also seeking an order that he recovers from the company, union and their principals US$19,000 or its equivalent of almost $4M in Guyana dollars.
Corniel has asked the Court for an order to recover from the respondents the sum of US$800 and another order for him to recover the sum of an additional $1M from them.
Added to this, the applicant has asked the Court for interest pursuant to Section 12 of the Law Reform Miscellaneous Provisions Act Chap 6:02, on all sums awarded at the rate of six percent per annum from the date of filing to the date of judgment, and thereafter at the rate of four percent until the judgment is fully paid.
In a document to support his claim, Corniel noted that in December, 2019, he travelled to Guyana to take up employment as the Chief Engineer of the oil tanker/vessel, M.T. Louis which is owned by a company operating out of the Dominican Republic.
The applicant said that the vessel was abandoned by the owners in Guyana and Bess and Fortune due to their previous dealings and relationship with the owners of the vessel assumed responsibility, control of and ultimate ownership of it.
Corniel explained that the M.T. Louis was at all material times docked at Caledonia, East Bank Demerara, Guyana, when it was not in territorial waters, and after entering Guyana he assumed the role of chief engineer of the vessel, a role which he continues to perform to date.
However, he claims that he and his crew of eight were not paid for the work they performed on the vessel for months, despite several demands for payment.
As a result, Corniel said he and the others visited the respondents to voice their complaints and to seek to recover the salaries owed.
He said that as a consequence, the respondents and employees of the vessel, M.T. Louis made and entered into a written agreement whereby Bess of Alpha Petroleum Trading Inc. agreed to pay to him his outstanding salaries in part payments.
He said that Bess thereafter agreed to pay the sum US$11,400 equivalent GYD $2,439,600 on or before August, 7, 2020 but breached the agreement, when he failed to pay to the said sum when it was due, owing and payable.
Sometime in and around November, 2020, Bess is said to have paid Corniel the sum US$2,100 leaving a balance of US$9300. But in a breakdown of his expenses, Corniel noted a significant amount is still owed to him including the costs of airfare to the Dominican Republic which is US $800. He said that Bess has failed to pay that sum despite agreeing to do so.
In addition to several other claims, the Dominican Republic national noted that numerous demands and requests for the outstanding payments were made but to no avail.
He explained that as a last resort before taking court action, he sent a lawyer’s letter to the respondents who informed that they ‘accidently spent the monies.” Given the circumstances, Corniel has approached the Court seeking the orders of relief. The matter is fixed for February 16, at 9:30 before Justice Sandil Kissoon.
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