Harlequin case to be heard in SVG – will Ames attend?

The High Court of England and Wales will sit for one week in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) this month to hear a US$70m claim for professional negligence that Harlequin Hotels and Resorts has brought against its former accountants and auditors Wilkins Kennedy.

The case, which is scheduled to run for seven weeks, begins in London on Monday, June 13, {{more}}but one week of the claim – the week commencing June 20 – will take place in SVG, which is the home of a central feature of the claim: Harlequin’s Buccament Bay Resort hotel.

A spokesperson for Harlequin told SEARCHLIGHT yesterday that the sitting of the High Court of England and Wales, here in St Vincent, will be open to the public and will take place upstairs the main court house.

He said a number of local persons will give evidence in the matter.

On June 20, the visiting court will do a site visit to the Buccament Bay Resort, then from June 21 to 23, the matter will be heard at the courthouse in Kingstown.

The spokesperson said that while Chairman Dave Ames “hopes to travel to SVG for the week of the trial,” he may not be able to attend, “as he is due to give evidence in court the following week (in the London), which, with a 200 page statement and thousands of pages of exhibits, requires a great deal of preparation.”

Some persons here have speculated that it is highly unlikely that Ames will visit SVG for the hearing, given the indebtedness of Harlequin/Buccament Bay Resort to several private businesses and state agencies. Sources say the company owes central Government in excess of EC$22 million.

The Harlequin spokesperson declined to comment on any indebtedness of the company to the Government but said Ames’ absence from SVG in recent times “is only due to the huge amount of preparation that has been ongoing in the UK for several months ahead of the seven-week trial.”