Appeal Court reserves ruling in $427m EMBD payout to contractor

THE COURT of Appeal has reserved its ruling in an appeal of a judge’s ruling, which ordered the Estate Management and Business Development Company (EMBD) to pay over $427 million in unpaid fees to a mega-contractor from La Brea, for infrastructure works it performed on four residential communities for former Caroni (1975) Ltd.

After a marathon hearing lasting two and a half days, Justices of Appeal Peter Rajkumar, Ronnie Boodoosingh and Geoffrey Henderson reserved their ruling in the EMBD’s appeal of Justice Ricky Rahim’s ruling in April 2022 in favour of Namalco Construction Services and a separate appeal by the La Brea contractor.

In 2022, Justice Ricky Rahim ordered EMBD to pay Namalco over $427 million for infrastructure work done at four housing projects once managed by Caroni (1975) Ltd at Cedar Hill, Roopsingh Road, Petit Morne, and Picton Monkey Town.

Namalco had originally sued for more than $1.3 billion, but the judge reduced the award after partially accepting EMBD’s argument that some of the claims were based on inflated charges and unauthorised contracts.

The dispute stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Namalco in 2016, where it claimed it had not been fully paid for work done. EMBD argued that some contracts, especially those signed by its former CEO Seebalack Singh, were not valid because he did not have the authority to approve contracts over $1 million without going through a tender process.

Rahim ruled that while EMBD owed Namalco for work done under the original agreements, he voided the supplemental contracts, which had raised project costs by hundreds of millions, due to what he called an “unlawful means conspiracy.”

The court also reviewed related issues involving four engineering and project management firms, including Atlantic Project Consultants Ltd, BBFL Civil Ltd, and Lee Young and Partners.
While some breaches of duty were found, the judge ruled that EMBD had not proven it suffered financial loss due to those firms and dismissed parts of that claim.

Representing the EMBD were Jonathan Acton Davis, KC, George Hayman, KC, Colin Kangaloo, SC, Christopher Reed and Danielle Inglefield.

Namalco’s attorneys were Richard Millett, KC, Roger Kawalsingh, Ashely Roopchansingh, Karina Singh and Leon Kalicharran. Atlantic Project Consultants was represented by Douglas Mendes, SC, and Kandace Bharath-Nahous.