A High Court judge has turned down an application from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to repay a $1.8 million debt to a contractor in instalments.
Delivering an oral ruling on the HDC’s application last Friday, Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams ruled that the State company was not entitled to such a the facility as it had not complied with the court’s rules required for it nor did the organisation disclose its financial records to support the application.
Attorney Larry Lalla, who represented the contractor, had argued that a corporation with vast resources such as the HDC was not entitled to make use of the court’s instalment payment rules.
As a result of her decision, the judge ordered that the HDC pay the contractor’s debt plus interest and as well as legal costs in one lump sum payment.
The contractor, from Corinth Settlement, Ste Madeleine, sued the HDC in July after it failed to pay for refurbishment works carried out on HDC communities in Union Hall, Embacadere, Couva and Orchard Gardens in Chaguanas.
The HDC admitted that it owed the debt but requested that it be repaid in 18 instalments of $100,000 each owing to cash flow problems. Such a request is catered for under the Civil Proceedings Rules, however, the HDC’s application was novel as it is usually used by individual debtors and not State agencies and corporations. The HDC was represented by Shankar Bidaisee and Rachael Jaggernauth.