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HOME	DECEMBER 17th, 2005

Dipcon issue going back to Court

The Government of Grenada has been given the green light by the Court of Appeal to pursue its own compensation case against the Trinidad and Tobago-bsed Dipcon Engineering.

This was disclosed during the sitting of the House of Representatives at the Grenada Trade Centre last week Friday by Leader of Government Business, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and Energy, Gregory Bowen.

He described the decision handed down by the three-member Justices of the Court of Appeal as a “significant development” in the Dipcon case against the Government of Grenada.

Government is suing Dipcon for breach of contract over its handling of road works and quarrying along the Eastern Main Road.

The company had earlier won a landmark judgement, now estimated at over EC$20 million from the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government for breach of contract when it came into office in June 1995.

Dipcon was under contract to the 1990-95 administration of Sir Nicholas Brathwaite to carry out roadwork on the island but incoming Prime Minister Mitchell tore up the agreement and moved to another construction company.

According to Bowen, the judgment handed down by the Appeal Court now means that government’s multi-million dollar case against Dipcon will proceed to trial as should have been the case years ago.
He said that with this litigation the prospects now look good for government to substantially if not entirely wipe out the damages that Dipcon had earlier obtained before the high court.

He is optimistic that the Mitchell regime will get a good opportunity to claim from Dipcon the same amount that the court ordered the State to pay to the Trinidad company.

“So Government is not sitting down, Mr Speaker, we are doing all we can to save this country”, he told parliament. This latest judgment comes after Dipcon’s lawyers had filed an application before the court seeking to prevent government from going ahead with its own lawsuit.

Bowen noted that Legal Advisor to Cabinet and Special Prosecutor, Hugh Wildman of Jamaica had successfully argued that under the Grenada Constitution, Dipcon’s argument against government did not meet the test to get leave to go to the Privy Council.

Wildman submitted that Dipcon’s application did not satisfy the test under Section 104.1 or Section 104.2 of the Grenada Constitution to qualify for leave to go to the Privy Council.