A contracting company was yesterday forced to temporarily withdraw its levy against Junior Sammy Contractors Limited over an unpaid $3.5 million court judgement.
Court marshals, police officers and lawyers representing Western General Contractors Services Limited went to Junior Sammy’s compound in Claxton Bay, around 6 am yesterday morning, to execute the judgement and begin the process of seizing items to recover the debt.
However before they could enter, the Registrar of the Supreme Court instructed them to put the process on hold as Junior Sammy Contractors had applied for a stay of the judgement pending an appeal.
The Registrar also gave the company until November 8 to have its stay application determined.
In its claim before Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh, Western General Contractors claimed that it was owed $3.25 million for sub-contracting work it had performed for Junior Sammy Contractors between December 2013 and February 2015.
Western General Contractors claimed that Junior Sammy Contractors had no complaints about its performance but only paid for a portion of the work.
In its defence, Junior Sammy Contractors challenged the subcontractor’s claims as it alleged that its work was performed improperly and in an unworkmanlike manner.
It also claimed that Western General Contractors did not follow its internal payment policy when it submitted invoices for payments and that some of the invoices were inflated.
Junior Sammy Contractors also filed a counter-claim in which it alleged that it suffered almost $3 million in losses as it was forced to re-do the subcontractor’s work as it did not meet the approval of its clients.
In his 46-page judgement, delivered in March, Justice Boodoosingh upheld the subcontractor’s case as he noted that Junior Sammy Contractors had previously honoured the invoices, which it claimed had been improperly submitted.
“This went against the very process advanced by the defendants that the invoices had to be verified by sending to the head office, then returning to the site for verification,” Boodoosingh said.
He also questioned Junior Sammy Contractors’ claim over the quality of the work, as he pointed out that it was only raised in the lawsuit.
“I found it difficult to believe that the defendant would be dissatisfied with the work being done to the extent they allege, have to re-do work because of the sub-standard work and this would not generate one written complaint. Surely the defendants would have been concerned about their own reputation with their clients,” Boodoosingh said.
In addition to ordering Junior Sammy Contractors to honour the debt, Boodoosingh also ordered it to pay five per cent interest on the sum from the date when the subcontractor filed its lawsuit.
Western General Contractors is being represented by Alvin Pariagsingh and Ganesh Saroop, while Jagdeo Singh, Karina Singh, and Desiree Sankar are representing Junior Sammy Contractors.
