GruppoZecca Bahamas, an architectural and engineering contractor that was tapped to construct the seawater conversion plant’s foundation and infrastructure, filed two writs in the Supreme Court against Waterfields Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Water.
Pitting two international contracting firms against one another, the lawsuit seeks damages in the range of $1 million in a dispute over the construction of the crown jewel of the Water and Sewerage Corporation, the new Blue Hills reverse osmosis plant.
Charges in the suit range from unpaid fees for completed work and materials supplied to deliberate interference in construction, causing breach of contract, to outright theft of property, both intellectual and tangible. After having been fully acquired by Consolidated Water, Waterfields changed its name to Consolidated Water (Bahamas). The writs filed with the Supreme Court still refer the suit to Waterfields.
Representatives from Grup-poZecca claim that Con-solidated Water (Bahamas) im-properly took possession of, then refused to pay for, specialty parts, which were manufactured abroad and shipped through customs at a duty-free rate, as they were intended for a government project.
The suit alleges “intentional interference by the second defendant (Waterfields) in-ducing the first defendant (Jason Lorandos) to breach his contract with the Plaintiff.” In plain speak, GruppoZecca is accusing Waterfields of going out of its way to stall progress, seeking the opportunity to defer a series of liquidated damages fines onto GruppoZecca.
Jason Lorandos is the architect that GruppoZecca contracted to act as a liaison to WSC for design approval. One of the two writs also demands that Mr Lorandos return all copies of the architectural plans “prepared by the Plaintiff for the purposes of the construction of the (water plant) shell building.”
GruppoZecca Bahamas’ CEO, Luca Zecca, said he doubts he’ll receive any “acceptable offers” from Consolidated Water (Bahamas) to settle out of court. Mr Zecca “is confident to find in court the justice he was unable to find on site where his counterparts enforced a biased method of judgment with the blatant purpose of damaging his company for their own benefits,” GruppoZecca’s business manager, Vanessa Forbes said to the Guardian.
Mr Zecca said he believes the situation at the Blue Hills reverse osmosis plant is “the result of an inexperienced and arrogant style of management by WCL (Waterfields Company), which forced the creation of situations to penalise and delay contractors to save on its budget and its face on other parts expenses.”
Consolidated Water (Bahamas) Blue Hills director, Robert Higgins, declined an opportunity to comment on the lawsuit, saying the corporate offices would not authorise him to do so.
Chief Executive of Consolidated Water, Rick McTaggart, citing corporate due diligence of a publicly traded company, said only that the parent company is aware of the lawsuit and plans to defend its subsidiary.
Ms Forbes said a third writ is being filed against Waterfields for the conversion of goods purchased on a special order by GruppoZecca.
Consolidated water is traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol CWCO.
By: SAM SMITH, The Nassau Guardian
