The agent for the Super Fast Galicia, Intercontinental Shipping Limited (ICSL), last week challenged Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan claim that it had an 18-month contract to service the sea bridge to October 31, 2017.
By letter dated April 21, Theresa Hadad, the attorney representing ICSL, denied the charter hire for the Galicia was extended for a further period of 18 months from May 1, 2016 to October 31, 2017. Hadad was responding to a letter dated April 20 from attorney Donna Denbow, who represented the Port Authority of T&T, which had raised the issue and called for ICSL to honour the 18-month contract or face legal action.
In her letter, a copy of which the T&T Guardian obtained, Hadad said “it is our considered position that no such contract came into existence and further that your client has for the first time only sought to advance this position by letter dated April 20, 2017.”
Hadad noted an invitation to tender dated July 26, 2016, in which ICSL participated for the charter/purchase of a cargo and passenger vessel which intended to start operation by December 1, 2016.
By virtue of that invitation, Hadad said the Minister of Works and Transport failed to enter into a charter party with ICSL. The letter noted that it was “widely reported in the media that Cabinet had rejected the 18-month extension recommended by the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT) and your client took no steps to refute said reports or to assure our client in writing or otherwise that a charter party would be forthcoming.” In addition, she said Denbow’s client “specifically requested that they be invoiced on a monthly basis for the continued usage of the Super Fast Galicia and our client duly issued invoices accordingly and on a monthly basis.” Hadad also noted that Sinanan also “publicly referred to the charter of the Galicia as that of a month to month arrangement.”
In the absence of a charter party with the ministry, Hadad said “our client was unable to conclude an 18-month extension charter party with the head owners of the Super Fast Galicia.” This position, she said, was disclosed to Sinanan in meetings and telephone discussions and was detailed in a letter dated March 28, 2017, to the minister which was not responded to. Hadad said as a result of this, “our client duly provided yours with notice that the month to month arrangement would be brought to an end.”
Having served notice that the Galicia would depart on April 14, Hadad said Sinanan “met with ICSL on April 6 and raised no issue of the 18-month contract. Rather, she said the minister “specifically requested that the vessel delay her intended departure to facilitate the requirements of the national populace over the Easter weekend” and “discussions ensued as to the arrangements for redelivery of the vessel and whether an alternative vessel could be sourced by our client to replace the Galicia.”
Hadad said at a second meeting on April 10 the same issues were discussed. ICSL, she said, subsequently secured an extension of the time for the departure of the Galicia to April 21 and based on a request from Sinanan, proposed a suitable alternative vessel to Sinanan for consideration at a comparable rate of hire.
But noting that Sinanan also waged a war against ICSL in the media, Hadad said “your client is not entitled to approbater and reprobate in respect of the issue as to whether a contract has been entered into and/or is subsisting and more importantly the existence of such contract does not arise at the whim and convenience of your client in response merely to political concerns or expediency.”
She argued that if Sinanan had taken steps to “unlawfully delay or detain the Super Fast Galicia, both our client and the head owners will sustain significant losses including but not limited to another arrangement at a higher charter rate.”She added too that if Sinanan chose to go to court for interim relief, “we advise that we have our client’s instructions to attend upon same and to oppose any such application.”
The Galicia left these shores last weekend after completing its final sailing on the sea bridge.
