Dr Sudhir Ruparelia Sues FBW Firm For Breach Of Contract

Posted by: lukwago J in Uganda news September 18, 2020

Ruparelia Group has sued an architecture firm for breaching the contract. FBW (u) Ltd and its directors Nigel J. Tilling and Paul Moores have been slapped with a lawsuit totaling to over $3m in breach of contract and damages by Meera Investments Ltd.

The suit arises out of their breach of contract for the extension of Meera’s Kabira Country Club that is part of the Ruparelia Group.

In a suit filed jointly by Meera’s lawyers Ssemambo & Ssemambo Advocates and Magna Advocates, on Monday, September 14, the defendants have been given two weeks to file their defense by the Commercial Division of the High Court.

FBW and the two individuals Tiling and Moores had previously provided services for Meera Investments.

They had worked on Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, Kampala International School, and Delhi Public School. Other places included Kampala Boulevard Shopping Centre, Kingdom Kampala, Downtown Project in Rwanda, and Phase 1 of Kabira Country Club.

“Since its establishment in 2000, Kabira Country Club enhanced its reputation as a renowned sport and health club facility. It offers varying facilities including high-end quality accommodation, service apartments, conferences. It has attracted an increased clientele base beyond its capacity. Thereby necessitating the need for expeditious expansion of the club’s facilities to accommodate the increased clients. This would also resultantly grow its income,” part of the suit reads.

FBW contract with Meera;

FBW entered into a contract with Meera on 6th February 2012 for both Speke Apartments Wampewo and Kabira Country Club extension with the scope of work including design development encompassing architectural, structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, other civil services, design team coordination, construction supervision, and incidental services.

Meera went ahead and made payments in installments stipulated in the contract and it was agreed that the Kabira expansion project stays until the completion of Speke Apartments Wampewo. In October 2018, the parties mutually agreed to resume the implementation of Kabira’s expansion project.

FBW and its directors undertook to complete full construction drawings before the end of December 2018. The scheduled date for the construction to start was January 2019. By this time FBW had already received three installments that covered work up to the submission of the construction drawings package.

However, in contravention of the contract, FBW demanded more money totaling to $75,000 (20%). They were supposed to receive when construction had commenced.

Meera who urgently needed construction to commence made the payments. To their surprise, FBW demanded more money in November 2018. Meera in dire need of the project to commence made another $37,500 payment. This was supposed to be the fifth installment. It was also supposed to be an in-between construction payment, long after the drawings should have been submitted.

Meera requested the architectural drawings but to their shock, FBW yet again demanded a sixth installment. This was supposed to be paid on completion of the construction of the shell structure. On insistence, FBW only handed over PDF format which was neither adjustable nor usable and they didn’t include the CAD files of the construction drawings.

After FBW failed,

As a result, Meera hired other professionals to complete the work. This was in order for their building to meet the 36 months schedule to completion. Meera engaged the architectural services of M/S Design 256 Ltd at a cost of $65,000. They also got an engineering firm Constulka Services for final construction drawings plus CAD files at $55,000. Meera also made payments to a mechanical and electrical engineer James Bakyaawa Ssozi of Chase Consults Ltd to convert PDF drawings to Auto-CAD on A1 and a payment of $16,000.

Meera now wants the court to compel FBW plus Tiling and Moores to refund $132,750. She also wants special damages of $286,739 arising out of the defendants’ breach of contract. The general damages inclusive of $2,672,579 as income Kabira will miss because the project will be delayed for six months arising from FBW’s breach of contract.

Meera, therefore, wants the court to compel FBW to pay an interest rate of 25% per annum. This is until the money is paid in full and costs of the suit.

Check also;

This is not a Paywall, but Newslex Point's journalism consumes a lot of time, hard-work and money. That's why we're kindly requesting you to support us in anyway they can, for as little as $1 or more, you can support us .

Please use the button below to contribute to Newslex Point, Inc. using a credit card or via PayPal.