The Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) has been ordered to pay $1 million by a High Court judge to Prometheus Engineering and Consultants Ltd for breach of agreement.
Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams also ordered that TSTT pay interest from the date of the legal action, October 2018, to the date of the judgment—at the rate of return on short-term investments at 2.5 per cent, as well as costs.
After successfully submitting a Request for Proposal (RFP) to TSTT, the company was engaged for the provision of a Field Sales Agent for the period December 1, 2016 to November 30, 2019.
The agreement entailed selling and providing after-sales support services for TSTT’s Blink product and services throughout T&T.
The company stated that TSTT provided them with stock during the period January 2017 to September 2018, but no products after September/October 2018 and neither did they perform any after sales services. While discussions were held with TSTT about providing services not included in the RFP, the company stated that no consensus was reached. The company served TSTT with a pre-action protocol letter in August 2019.
In their defence, TSTT stated that the company had mobilised for the full three-year period at their own risk and at their sole discretion and relied on a clause dealing with the termination of the agreement.
TSTT further argued that the agreement gave them the sole discretion to supply products to the company and did not bind them to any fixed or definite quota, and it was at liberty not to provide any products.
TSTT ceased sales of fibre services in September 2018 due to the acquisition of Amplia Communications Limited and the transfer of fibre services to Amplia.
TSTT said it had also stopped the sale of WTTX Services due to congestion issues. TSTT claimed to have aided the company to focus on mobile and security products, including the migration to 4G and other programmes. It added that had it been liable for breach of the agreement, the parties contracted to limit liability to $1 million.
After considering the evidence, the judge found that on a balance of probabilities TSTT breached the agreement.
“The defendant did not provide products for sale, that the agreement was not terminated under the provisions of the agreement, that the defendant was given an opportunity to rectify the breach but did not rectify it and that there is a valid limitation clause capping the defendant’s liability to $1 million,” said the judge in her written ruling.
The judge rejected the company’s request for damages for loss of reputation, as she found the evidence on this matter to be speculative.
The company was also unsuccessful in its pleadings for special damages per month for 15 months averaging $3,349,290.
Attorney Lester Charriah, instructed by Kent Samlal, represented Prometheus Engineering and Consultants Ltd, while Sashi Indarsingh represented TSTT.