The Chinese contractor who built the controversial Las Alturas Tower Complex in Morvant has initiated its lawsuit against the commission of enquiry into the failed multi-million dollar housing project.
China Jiangsu International Corp T&T Ltd is seeking leave for judicial review of a decision taken by the three-member commission to add it as a party to its ongoing proceedings in January, this year.
Lawyers for the company and the commission met before High Court Judge James Aboud in the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, yesterday for the first hearing of the case since it was filed last month.
In appealing for permission to continue the lawsuit, the company’s lawyer John Jeremie, SC, claimed the commission’s decision was prejudicial to his client’s ongoing civil lawsuit with the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) over the project.
“My client is in a sensitive business and does work throughout Africa, China and the Caribbean,” Jeremie said as he indicated his client’s international reputation would be negatively affected by being forced to appear before the commission.
While he admitted his client had no issue with being summoned as a witness in the proceedings, Jeremie said the commission overstepped its remit in naming his client as a party to the proceedings.
In response, lead counsel for the commission, Senior Counsel Pamela Elder, dismissed Jeremie’s concerns as she said the commission acted within its powers under the Commission of Enquiry Act.
“It (the company) was instrumental in building all these houses in Morvant. Two are presently uninhabitable because they were built by China Jiangsu over a crack in the land. Given their standings they should be heard from,” Elder said. Stating the decision conferred additional rights on the company, allowing it to question allegations against it raised by other witnesses in the commission, Elder suggested that it was not obligated to participate in the process.
“It certainly has no realistic prospect of success. Quite frankly it is doomed to fail,” Elder said as she called upon Aboud to dismiss the application without hearing the substantive case because the company had not proven that it was adversely affected by the decision. Aboud did not accede to her request as he said that the issue needed to be ventilated further. He gave both parties deadlines to file submissions on the issue and promised to give his decision by June 26.
The commission was appointed by President Anthony Carmona in December last year to investigate if there was any criminal or civil liability associated with the housing development at Lady Young Gardens, Morvant. Months earlier, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar called for the enquiry as several structural issues with the project surfaced leading to two buildings being demolished. The commission, which is chaired by retired Appeal Court Judge Mustapha Ibrahim and includes engineers Dr Myron Wing Sang Chin and Anthony Farrell, began taking evidence in January this year. Its fourth batch of evidential hearings will begin on June 15.