The Chinese contracting firm which built the controversial Las Alturas housing complex in Morvant is seeking to recoup $500,000 in legal fees it incurred in pursuing a lawsuit against the commission of enquiry investigating the housing project.
Lawyers representing China Jiangsu International Corp T&T Ltd yesterday filed their legal bill in the Port-of-Spain High Court as they initiated the process of claiming their client’s legal costs after it won its judicial review lawsuit against the commission on January 29.
The company had challenged the commission’s decision to make it a party to the proceedings.
Addressing Justice James Aboud during a brief hearing yesterday, the commission’s lawyer Alvin Pariagsingh said that the company’s bill had been sent to the Office of the Attorney General for approval and his client was still awaiting a response.
Aboud agreed to adjourn the case to give Pariagsingh additional time, but said that he could assess the legal costs in the event that the AG’s office failed to reach an agreement with the company.
Aboud said: “It is a process of auditing. I will have to look at the bill and see where there is extravagance and cut it down. Just because you write a figure down on a piece of paper that does not mean that the defendant has to pay it.”
In his judgment, Aboud had agreed with the company’s attorneys that the commission did not have the power to make the company a party. The company was claiming the commission’s decision was prejudicial to its ongoing civil lawsuit with the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) over the project.
Aboud said the sole purpose of the commissioners was to probe, enquire and investigate the reason for the structural failure of the housing complex and even though it had the power to summon the company to assist with that investigation, they could not by law add the company as a party.
He found the decision of the commission was illegal, ultra vires, null and void and of no effect.
The commission last week filed an appeal of Aboud’s judgment. The Court of Appeal is yet to set a date for the hearing of the appeal.
The company’s legal team was led by John Jeremie, SC, while Pamela Elder, SC, led Pariagsingh for the HDC.