Special Advisor to the Grenada Cabinet, Hugh Wildman is claiming a personal legal victory against Dipcon Engineering Services after the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the State can litigate against the construction firm from Trinidad and Tobago.

Wildman told reporters Monday after the decision was handed down Monday that he remained resolute on the issue and decided to appeal against an earlier decision by a high court judge.

The controversial Jamaican-born attorney-at-law said the Justices of the Court of Appeal have now vindicated him. According to Wildman, the counter suit would not have come about if he did not initiate it. "I could have sat back and say Dipcon won the case against government already, ok that's it", he remarked.

"It was my initiative to bring a counter-suit against Dipcon that cause us to be at this point today where we have a hope, some hope at reversing Dipcon's judgment", he said.

DIPCON has won a multi-million dollar law suit against the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government for terminating a road-building contract awarded by the 1990-95 National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Sir Nicholas Brathwaite.

Wildman said that while the company was pursuing its case right up to the Privy Council he took the initiative to pursue another case against Dipcon and to allege various breaches of the contract against the company.

He spoke of arguing before Master Brian Cottle that the allegations of breaches of contract against DIPCON was separate and apart from the company's own contention that the government was in breach of the contract. Dipcon had entered into two agreements with Grenada in 1995 - one was for the leasing of lands at Perseverance and the other for the leasing of a quarry at Mt. Hartman to undertake quarrying and excavation work.

The Mitchell government purported to terminate both agreements by letter to Dipcon in November 1995, five months after taking office. It also moved to take possession of the Mt. Hartman Quarry and the Perseverance Asphalt Plant from the construction firm.
Dipcon sued the government in July 1996 and claimed some $20 million as special damages.

Government filed a Statement of Claim in June 2001 in which it alleged that Dipcon breached several terms of the agreement. The State claimed that the company used poor material on a number of projects and that it owed the government for royalties and material.

The government said that it did not file a Defence in the Dipcon proceedings because the parties entered into negotiations. The negotiations resulted in a Consent Order, which provided for the government to pay $3 million to the company.

The High Court set aside the Consent Order on the company's application on the grounds that the application was entered without Dipcon's authority. The Trinidad and Tobago company then took its matter to the British Privy Council where it was awarded damages to the tune of about $20 million including interest.