Tobago landscaper sues ex-CIB boss for $.3m

A Tobago landscaper is suing former Clico Investment Bank (CIB) chairman Andre Monteil for $.3 million for landscaping services.

Zimroy Williams, of Mt Thomas, Golden Lane, filed a claim on Wednesday in the Tobago High Court registry against Monteil for $300,000.

The documents said the money was due and owing for landscaping services Williams did for Monteil in 2018 and 2019.

The lawsuit contends Monteil, the owner of two properties at Buccoo and Tobago Plantations in Lowlands, hired the landscaper to provide garden maintenance and landscaping services on a monthly basis at $20,000 a month.

It was allegedly an oral agreement between the two, made in 2017.

Williams’s claim said although he did all work and services required for 2017, towards the end of that year, he began to experience difficulty in getting paid for November and December.

His lawsuit said he was assured the outstanding debt would be paid. Williams continued to provide services in 2018 and in February that year, he received a $40,000 cheque for November and December 2017.

The lawsuit said the cheque bounced and Williams’s bankers told him the cheque was dishonoured. He allegedly sent an e-mail to Monteil and was again assured, in a telephone call, that Monteil would make every effort to settle the outstanding debt.

Williams’s lawsuit contended he continued to provide maintenance services in good faith and because of promises made and the close business relationship they had. However, it claimed there were no efforts to settle the outstanding debt.

Around July 2018, Williams said he wrote to Monteil about payment and to let him know he would stop work unless the outstanding invoices were settled.

He claimed the former business executive pleaded with him to resume landscaping and gardening services and he did, as “he held a genuine belief that all efforts would be made by the defendant to satisfy the outstanding debt owed to him.”

Williams continued to provide services from September 2018-April 2019 without payment.

He stopped all landscaping work at the properties in April 2019.

Williams’s attorneys, Martin George and Company, sent pre-action protocol letter in October 2019, and Monteil allegedly acknowledged indebtedness and proposed to pay the full amount by February 2020.

“However, to date, the defendant has not made any payment towards his outstanding debt to the claimant whether in part of in whole,” the lawsuit said.

In addition to payment of the $300,000 he said is owed to him, Williams is asking for damages for breach of contract and consequential losses and expenses.

Williams is represented by attorneys Martin George and Lakshmi Lalla.