GOVERNMENT on Wednesday indicated it will be appealing the decision of High Court judge Brassington Reynolds to order the state to pay over $1.7B in damages to Toolsie Persaud Limited (TPL) after losing its challenge to that company’s ownership of land at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

Part of the land in question houses the MovieTowne Cinema and Shopping Mall. “There is no way we are going to allow that $1.7B judgment to stand without scrutiny,” said Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams.

Williams told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the 3rd annual International Commercial Arbitration Conference being held at Duke Lodge, Kingston that the TPL case mirrors that of DIPCON Engineering Limited which was inherited by the APNU+AFC coalition government. In the latter case, which the state was ordered to pay DIPCON $446M for contractual works done, Williams said his office was unaware of the matter until the period allotted under the rules of the Court of Appeal had expired.

“Further to that, there was no evidence of the file of the AG’s chambers – it is a new AG and it wasn’t until February at the Budget that I was informed by the Leader of the Opposition about the case,” the Attorney General had said in response to the November 2017 CCJ ruling.

Similarly, in the TPL case, he told reporters, “The Toolsie Persaud case is just like the DIPCON case. My chambers had no knowledge of the case, there is no file in the chambers …we are surprised that we are represented by the old regime under Mr Nandlall.”

The state was represented by Ashton Chase. “We are investigating it now and of course we will appeal it,” he assured, noting that his office had requested a list of cases outstanding from the Chief Justice and the Court of Appeal as well as certain practitioners. Williams said it is unusual for the state to outsource a case and not have any record of same. He told Guyana Chronicle that while he received responses from the Chief Justice, Court of Appeal and the practitioners asked, none made mention of the case.

“Yes, but no case like that. We weren’t told they had the case … we have to examine now, look at it and read the records. If you had a case since 2008, weren’t you supposed to bring in the case?”

Williams said the Crime Chief was asked to probe cases where attorneys recruited to act on behalf of the state, in turn represented the intended opponent. This, he said, was done since the DIPCON case last year. He could not state whether the Crime Chief followed through on his request but noted, “I haven’t heard from him since.” It is expected that within the next six weeks, steps will be taken by the state to appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, TPL had argued that it never denied there was a 1987 agreement through which land was purchased from then People’s National Congress (PNC) government. TPL had purchased several plots of lands in the Turkeyen, ECD area. However, the state argued that TPL had repudiated the contract after applying for prescriptive title, thereby relinquishing ownership of the lands. The state’s argument did not find favour with the court.

According to a Stabroek News report, Justice Reynolds said the State is barred from compulsorily acquiring from TPL which TPL has owned for more than 12 years. The judge said by applying for prescriptive title, TPL was exploring another avenue of retaining the lands through a process which can be afforded after 12 years would have passed.

It was noted that the state failed to enquire from TPL during the said 12-year period the status of the 1987 agreement, which was still in effect. Justice Reynolds held that based on the agreement, the lands belonged to TPL and never ceased to belong to the entity. He made it clear that in order for the contract to be considered frustrated and the subject of non-performance an interrupting act must be done which results in a drastic change to the contractual agreements.

The court held that the contract between the state and TPL was never frustrated and the state erred when it attempted to retrieve lands after it had been sold. The government and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) were ordered jointly and severally, to pay to TPL damages to the tune of $1,745,203,346.

The state was also ordered to pay interest at a rate of 6 per cent per annum from the filing of the writ in 2008 to Friday, April 20, 2018. Additionally, interest of 4 per cent per annum was ordered to be paid from the date of judgment, until full payment. The court also awarded TPL court costs in the sum of $500,000.