SkyBiz to reimburse an amount of over MVR 2 million to the State for breaching an agreement deadline

Civil court has ordered compensation of over MVR 2 million to a private company that had failed to supply 15 cars by the agreed date to the Finance Ministry.

The receiver of this ruling was Skybiz Investment’s CEO, Mohamed Husham.

The State had stipulated to order the defendant to compensate MVR 2 million in liquidated damages as the latter had failed to provide the cars in the period stated in the agreement between the two.

Husham had said that he was unable to supply the cars in the agreed period due to unforeseen circumstances. On August 14, 2017, after delivering the vehicles, he had sent a letter to the ministry stating that the delivery was delayed due to technical errors during the shipping process and difficulties due to unfavorable weather.

The trial had found evidence that the company had failed to supply the cars after extending the deadline twice due to the initial delay. Husham had responded that he was unable to make the delivery during the extended period due to difficulties faced with customs in clearing the vehicles brought to the country. He had not requested for any further extensions.

The court had highlighted that the delay in clearing the vehicles was due to the company’s request to revise the Customs’ decision to decline the duty value amount offered by his company and although that period was not under the company’s control, Husham had not stated that this was out of the norm.

The ruling also stated that there was no incentive to believe that the challenges in vehicle clearance was an unexpected situation and also said that the defendant had been unable offer a rationale for not requesting a deadline extension to the Ministry as he had previously done twice.

Therefore, the court had come to decision due to Husham’s lack of questioning of the state’s declaration to claim the money under the Finance Act and due to no grounds to deny the compensation as per the agreement signed between both parties.

The court's ruling stated that the total amount must be reimbursed before the first of March.