Special justices of appeal sworn in to hear EEEL v Vijay Construction Ltd case |11 October 2022
The three justices of appeal with President Ramkalawan after the swearing in ceremony (Photo: Patrick Joubert)
President Wavel Ramkalawan has appointed Justice Winston Anderson, Justice Carl Singh and Justice William Young as special justices of appeal to hear the case of Vijay Construction Ltd v Eastern European Engineering Ltd (EEEL), in regards to the latter’s awarded lawsuit.
The appointment of the three foreign appeal judges by President Ramkalawan follows recommendations from the Constitutional Appointments Authority (CAA), for the appointment, in the spirit of fairness, of three special justices of appeal and with no connection to previous hearings in the case, to hear and to come to a final determination.
Justice Anderson, Justice Singh and Justice Young were sworn in at State House yesterday morning, taking the oath of allegiance and judicial oath before President Ramkalawan.
Present were Vice-President Ahmed Afif, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Rony Govinden, President of the Court of Appeal Anthony Fernando, Attorney General Frank Ally, judges, CAA members and distinguished guests.
The appeal case by Vijay Construction Ltd against a law suit of US $22 million awarded to EEEL for breaking the terms of a contract it signed for the development of the Savoy Hotel in 2011, will be presided by the three foreign judges.
Justice Anderson, as the judge presiding over the appeal, is a judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which is the apex court in civil, constitutional, and criminal appeals from four sovereign states: Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana. He has been the judge of the CCJ for 12 years and is now the third most senior judge on the bench.
Justice William Young has served on the high court, court of appeal and Supreme Court of New Zealand. Sir William is an honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple and an honorary Fellow. He holds an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Canterbury.
Justice Carl Singh has served at the Supreme Court of Guyana, followed by being the Chief Justice of Guyana and most recently in the Office of Chancellor and Head of the Judiciary of Guyana. He was also the professor and head of the department of law at the University of Guyana.
It is to be noted that Vijay Construction Ltd has been in and out of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the Constitutional court since 2020 following the Supreme Court’s ruling to award compensation to EEEL for breach of contract.
In 2020 Vijay Construction lost its final appeal and in 2021 asked to set the case aside and the Court of Appeal obliged. Now a new court is hearing the appeal all over again.
The first hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, October 12 at 10am in the Court of Appeal, Ile du Port.
The case that has been heard in various courts both international and in Seychelles and the newly sworn-in justices are expected to hear it and come to a final determination.
The case pertains to the EEEL hiring Vijay Construction to carry out construction work for Savoy Hotel in 2011 through six contracts. Each of the six contracts that Vijay was hired under included similar arbitration clauses, which provided that any dispute, disagreement or claim would be settled by arbitration in Paris. 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.
On October 2, 2020, an appeal by Vijay Construction in the case was dismissed by the Court of Appeal, permitting the Eastern European Engineering Limited (EEEL) to collect a US $22 million compensation after hiring Vijay Construction to carry out construction work on the company's Savoy Hotel in 2011 through six contracts.
The costs to be incurred by Vijay Construction for breaking the contract were never paid partly because the award was not enforceable until Seychelles became party to the 1958 New York Convention in early 2020.
On March 9, 2021 in a court session presided by Justices Fiona Robinson, Samia Andre and Gustave Dodin, Vijay Construction represented by attorney Bernard Georges was granted a temporary stay of execution, with the next hearing set for Tuesday March 30, while the ruling will be made on April 13.
A stay of execution is a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order.
A stay can be granted automatically by operation of law or conventionally, when the parties in a civil or criminal case agree that no execution shall occur for a certain period. If a party appeals a decision, any judgment issued by the original court may be stayed until the appeal is resolved.
Patrick Joubert