Withdrawn

Prominent businesswoman Ram Mirchandani has withdrawn her challenge to a court order that her Casa Grande Hotel pay thousands of dollars in arrears to the Barbados Water Authority (BWA).

The hotel which trades as Knitwear Ltd, at Oldbury, St Philip, had its water supply turned off since last November.

Lawyers for Mirchandani yesterday withdrew an application they had filed in the Court of Appeal seeking leave to challenge the payment conditions put in place by the High Court.

Amid a quarter-million-dollar bill, the BWA has disconnected the mains supply after it discovered an illegal connection on the property.

In March, the matter went before the Civil Court, but Knitwear filed an injunction against the water authority’s disconnection and requested that the water connection be restored.

High Court Justice Michelle Weekes granted the company the injunction earlier this month but on several conditions.

First, Knitwear was expected to pay half of over quarter million dollars it owed in arrears and fix the reportedly 63 leaking toilets at Casa Grande Hotel which was contributing in part to the high water bill.

The property was also to allow inspection by the BWA, and pay the monthly water bill in full going forward including the Garbage and Sewage Contribution levy until the challenge had been heard.

Instead, Knitwear Ltd, which was represented by attorney-at-law Ernest Jackman filed a notice of application for leave to appeal the conditions imposed by Justice Weekes on August 5.

But when the case came before Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson and Court of Appeal Judges William Chandler and Margaret Reifer yesterday, attorneys for the BWA Gregory Nicholls and Ona Harewood argued that the hotel “did not need leave in relation to grant of refusal on an injunction”.

This resulted in the hotel withdrawing the application. The Court of Appeal also ordered that company pay the authority’s legal costs. fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb