December 1, 2006

IN COURT THIS WEEK

COURT OF APPEAL VINDICATES PAUL CHOW

The Court of Appeal this week gave judgment in favour of Paul Chow allowing his appeal against a judgment of Judge Karunakaran who had made an order rescinding an agreement between Chow and Josslyn Bossy. The case had been brought by Mr. Hooper Hoareau, the Executor of the Estate of Heirs Bossy against Chow. Hooper had asked the Supreme Court to rescind the contract entered into between Chow and Bossy.

The lease gave Chow a 90 year lease of property at Beau Vallon to carry out a development of his choice. The point of contention put forward by Mr. Frank Ally, attorney for the estate, was that Chow has not undertaken any development on the property as agreed. The Executor sought rescission of the said contract because no development has been implemented on the property by Chow as was required by the agreement. The Court presided over by Judge Karunakaran granted the application and rescinded the agreement. Chow appealed to the Court of Appeal on the grounds, inter alia, that the agreement did not provide a time limit within which development was to commence and that Judge Karunakaran was wrong to impute a time limit in the agreement himself and to rescind the agreement on that basis.

The Court of Appeal agreed with Chow’s arguments and ruled that he has 24 months from the date of judgment to start developing the property. The Court also ruled that the agreement is a valid agreement and thus legally binding on both parties. The judgment clearly shows that the front page article carried by the SPPF’s party rag, “The People” was a pack of lies engineered by this paper to discredit Chow and bring his character and reputation into disrepute, ridicule and contempt. Chow has thus instructed his lawyers to advise him whether he can bring a lawsuit against “The People” for libel, slander and defamation of character since the article published by The People was clearly malicious and unfounded. It was purely a vile attempt at character assassination of Chow by the paper in a desperate attempt to score a few political points.

Paul Chow was represented by able lawyer and ex-Attorney General Mr. Pesi Pardiwalla. Chow has also appealed against another judgment delivered by the same judge in the SACOS case whereby the judge had ruled that he is personally liable for the debt of a company of which he is a mere director. The decision is unprecedented and the appeal is yet to be heard.  

Copyright 2006: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles