IFA loses court battle
Liviero and IFA
01 September 2010
Will have to pay Liviero R18m - but IFA says this judgment does not herald the end of the greater matter at hand.
Liviero's statement
A judgment handed down by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday 27 August 2010 will see IFA having to pay over R18m to leading privately owned construction company Liviero.
The dispute between Liviero and IFA, which dates back to August 2009, centred around the non-payment by IFA of an amount of R18m for construction work on the Zimbali Faimont Hotel carried out by Liviero. As a consequence of non payment, Liviero was forced to cancel the contract. This despite Liviero using its own funds to carry the project for almost three months.
In addition to the favourable ruling on the matter of the outstanding payment, the Judge also found in favour of Liviero with regards to the legitimacy of the contract cancellation.
Commenting on the Judges' favourable ruling, Chairman of Liviero, Luca Liviero says "While we are pleased with the outcome of the court ruling, we are disappointed that this matter could not have been resolved amicably despite numerous attempts from our side during the months preceeding the cancellation. We will be pursuing further legal action around money owed for work carried out last August and related damages".
IFA's response
Provisional Sentence Application
As the name suggests, Provisional Sentence is provisional in nature, and IFA Hotels & Resorts has noted the judgment in the proceedings brought by Liviero, which ring-fences the withholding of a payment certificate to the value of R18million.
Liviero will be paid out of adequate funds previously placed in Trust to cover this phase of the action. This payment will be made against receipt by IFA Hotels & Resorts of a suitable bank guarantee for repayment against damages claimed if the main action succeeds.
This judgment therefore is a ruling on one payment certificate and does not herald the end of the greater matter at hand, being the action to be brought against Liviero for contract performance breach / default on the building construction of IFA Hotels & Resorts' new Fairmont Zimbali Resort.
IFA Hotels & Resorts is ready to commence with the main action and launch an appropriate and substantial counterclaim, but does not wish to debate the detail in public.
In this regard, and to put the current publicity into perspective, the final account in respect of the completion of the new Fairmont Zimbali Hotel, the potential impact of the alleged breach and subsequent mitigation of damages, has yet to be decided and IFAHR remains confident of the final outcome.
IFA Hotels & Resorts once again disputes the public statements issued by Liviero and furthermore points out that this dispute is not related to the IFA entity listed on the JSE.
ايفا تخسر قضيه ضد المقاول في جنوب افريقا والمحكمه تلزمها بدفع 18 مليون