Hours after giving an undertaking to the court to cease work by 6 p.m. at two hotel sites in Dover, Christ Church, JADA Builders Inc. went back on their word.
And attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman, who filed the injunction at the High Court to limit the hours JADA could work at Sandals and Ocean Two, has warned that he is prepared to have the directors of the company held in contempt of court and possibly imprisoned if they continue to defy the court order.
Hanuman, who is also a resident of the Christ Church community, told Barbados TODAY that JADA employees worked until almost 10 p.m. on Wednesday and until 7:30 p.m. the following night.
Justice Shona Griffith had issued on order on Wednesday that the construction company was to only work at the two sites between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday. No work is to be conducted on Sundays or public holidays.
Lalu Hanuman
The decision came after residents, complaining of having to deal with loud noises at late hours, constant traffic, vibrations and dust issues, took legal action against the construction company.
However, Hanuman said the court order had made little difference thus far.
“The order was actually made on the 4th [Wednesday] and it stated that they wouldn’t be working after 6 p.m. and that same night at the Ocean Two site they worked until nearly 10 p.m. Last night [Thursday] at the Sandals site they worked until nearly 7:30 p.m.,” he complained.
“Both nights they breached the undertaking. I’ve notified their lawyer, Mr Michael Koeiman, and he said he will have a word with his clients and revert to me but I haven’t heard from him.
“They’ve breached their undertaking and by so doing, really they’re in contempt of court. So I could make an application to the court, a committal application, in which case the directors of the company, if they are found to be in contempt could, in theory, be sent to prison.”
Hanuman admitted though, that was not his preferred course of action.
But he pointed out that if JADA continued to defy the orders of the court, he would have no choice but to go that route.
“Obviously I’m not eager to have anybody go to prison so I’m not eager to make that application…but obviously if this is going to continue then I will have to resort to going back to court to have them committed to prison, because clearly they are in breach of the order. In the past, they have given me undertakings outside of the court scenario that they will not do certain things and they’ve also breached those undertakings, so it seems as though they’re doing the same thing again,” Hanuman said.
Efforts to reach Koeiman for comment were unsuccessful up to press time.
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
