Court orders CEPEP contractor to pay legal costs

The Court of Ap­peal has or­dered CEPEP Con­trac­tor East­man En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed to pay CEPEP’s le­gal costs af­ter the con­clu­sion of an ap­peal con­cern­ing the use of an Al­ter­na­tive Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion clause in the par­ties’ con­tract.

The court held that the con­trac­tor was wrong to by­pass the clause by fil­ing a claim in the courts. It stat­ed that the par­ties had agreed to use dis­pute res­o­lu­tion be­fore ap­proach­ing the courts and that by­pass­ing the process re­moved the pur­pose of the agreed pro­ce­dure.

Se­nior Coun­sel Lar­ry Lal­la, who ap­peared for the con­trac­tor with at­tor­neys Ka­reem Mar­celle and St. Clair Michael O’Neil, ar­gued that the court should make no or­der as to costs. Coun­sel sub­mit­ted that each par­ty should bear its own costs be­cause the Court of Ap­peal ruled that the tri­al judge erred in re­fer­ring the mat­ter to the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions.