Next chapter in long-running Savoy Hotel court case to be heard Nov. 3 in Seychelles' Constitutional court
General |Author: Daniel Laurence Edited by: Betymie Bonnelame | October 20, 2020, Tuesday @ 14:24| 6672 views
EEEL hired Vijay Construction to carry out construction work on the company's Savoy Hotel in 2011. (Savoy Resort and Spa)
(Seychelles News Agency) - The Seychelles Constitutional Court on Tuesday set November 3 to hear the preliminary objection filed by the lawyer of the Eastern European Engineering Limited (EEEL) in the case against Vijay Construction.
The lawyer of Vijay Construction, Bernard George, filed the request in August to have the whole case re-heard.
The request was put on hold while the case was being heard in the Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of EEEL, paving the way for the engineering company to collect a $22 million judgment against the construction company.
Speaking to SNA after the court's session, EEEL's lawyer, Alexandra Madeleine, said that the court will hear the preliminary objection on the law prior to hearing objection on the merit of hearing the case in the Seychelles' Constitutional Court.
A preliminary objection is a formal step by which a respondent raises a question which it contends should be dealt with separately before any other issue in the proceedings is examined.
In a ruling on June 30, the Supreme Court ordered Vijay Construction to pay EEEL a little over $17 million in line with a United Kingdom court order from 2015, plus $5 million in interest.
Madeleine informed the court that the Supreme Court in a proceeding last Thursday made an order for the execution of the judgment for a period of one month.
Meanwhile, Georges said that they will wait for the ruling on the preliminary objection from the appeal's court to see their way forward.
The Eastern European Engineering Limited, a company registered in Seychelles and a subsidiary of holding company Guta group with headquarters in Russia, hired Vijay Construction to carry out construction work on the company's Savoy Hotel in 2011 through six contracts.
The company filed a Request for Arbitration in September 2012 before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris and received a sole arbitrator award in November 2014.
The costs to be incurred by Vijay Construction for breaking the contract were never paid partly because the award was not enforceable until Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, became party to the 1958 New York Convention earlier this year.
Founded in Seychelles in 1979 by V.J. Patel, Vijay Construction has built and commissioned several large developments including the Eden Island project – on the east coast of the main island of Mahe.