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Black to sue government for money owed
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large Special Coverage Unit specialcoverageunit@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, May 31, 2009
WELL-KNOWN contractor and businessman Kenneth Black is moving to sue a government agency to recover over $400 million which he said is owed to him for work done on a construction project.
Manchester-based Black, who is widely called 'Skeng Don', undertook several construction projects for the Government during the administrations of PJ Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller, stretching from the 1990s into the new millennium. Some of those contracts were questioned by other interests in the construction sector, who cited Black's well-known closeness to the then ruling People's National Party (PNP) as the reason for his landing the jobs.
BLACK. no stranger to high-profile lawsuits Graphic: Rorie Atkinson
But his inability to collect outstanding monies owed for work done under the PNP regime has led him to take the legal route, people close to Black told the Sunday Observer.
"I have just been retained, so I need time to read the papers fully before I can say more," Black's attorney, former Crown counsel Gayle Nelson told the Sunday Observer on Friday.
Black, a staunch PNP activist and financier, is the official head of the central Jamaica-based Black Brothers Ltd, one of Jamaica's largest construction companies.
Among the jobs for which he is owed is the Whitehall project near Negril in the southwestern parish of Westmoreland.
Black Brothers put in a claim for over $400 million to the then National Housing Development Corporation, now called Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), for infrastructure work done.
Sources told this newspaper that the Housing Agency has revised the claim downward to $148 million, but there has been no clearly defined timeline for the payment to be made.
Once regarded as a booming squatter settlement characterised by illegal construction of dwelling houses, the Whitehall project was regularised by housing authorities and now represents a fledging community.
Black's decision to retain the services of Nelson means that he has confidence in the no-nonsense lawyer to deliver positively for him in a timely manner, one source close to the businessman said.
"Skeng believes that Gayle Nelson can do a good job, because let's face it, Nelson knows his law and he has been in form lately," the source said.
Nelson represented defeated political candidate Abe Dabdoub in the dual citizenship row involving present information minister Daryl Vaz.
Nelson only last week filed a legal cost claim in court against Vaz amounting to more than $49 million.
"He has briefed me verbally already, but like I have said, I wouldn't want to say anything until I have gone through the papers," Nelson said.
HAJ's managing director Joseph Shoucair confirmed that there was an unsettled matter involving Black and his agency, but declined to go into detail.
"There is a claim by Black Brothers and we had some difficulties with the claim," said Shoucair. "We have made the appropriate recommendation as to how it should be dealt with. We have some concerns about it and we have expressed those concerns."
Black Brothers has worked with several Provident Societies under the Operation Pride programme, most of which the then NHDC managed and financed.
Black is no stranger to high-profile lawsuits. In one of his famous legal missions, he hauled former Prime Minister Edward Seaga before the Supreme Court for statements that the ex-JLP leader made about him at a public function in 2001.
Black, who was represented then by attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, filed the suit after the veteran politician, now a senior fellow at the University of the West Indies, raised questions about Black's intellect and training, while delving into the operations of Black Brothers.
Seaga claimed qualified privilege, as he argued that he was the opposition leader and therefore should be allowed to make such comments.
The parties agreed not to proceed to trial and a Supreme Court judge ruled in December 2003 that Seaga should apologise in the major newspapers, on television stations and on two radio stations. He was also requested to pay legal costs of $500,000.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._HIS_MONEY.asp
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large Special Coverage Unit specialcoverageunit@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, May 31, 2009
WELL-KNOWN contractor and businessman Kenneth Black is moving to sue a government agency to recover over $400 million which he said is owed to him for work done on a construction project.
Manchester-based Black, who is widely called 'Skeng Don', undertook several construction projects for the Government during the administrations of PJ Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller, stretching from the 1990s into the new millennium. Some of those contracts were questioned by other interests in the construction sector, who cited Black's well-known closeness to the then ruling People's National Party (PNP) as the reason for his landing the jobs.
BLACK. no stranger to high-profile lawsuits Graphic: Rorie Atkinson But his inability to collect outstanding monies owed for work done under the PNP regime has led him to take the legal route, people close to Black told the Sunday Observer.
"I have just been retained, so I need time to read the papers fully before I can say more," Black's attorney, former Crown counsel Gayle Nelson told the Sunday Observer on Friday.
Black, a staunch PNP activist and financier, is the official head of the central Jamaica-based Black Brothers Ltd, one of Jamaica's largest construction companies.
Among the jobs for which he is owed is the Whitehall project near Negril in the southwestern parish of Westmoreland.
Black Brothers put in a claim for over $400 million to the then National Housing Development Corporation, now called Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), for infrastructure work done.
Sources told this newspaper that the Housing Agency has revised the claim downward to $148 million, but there has been no clearly defined timeline for the payment to be made.
Once regarded as a booming squatter settlement characterised by illegal construction of dwelling houses, the Whitehall project was regularised by housing authorities and now represents a fledging community.
Black's decision to retain the services of Nelson means that he has confidence in the no-nonsense lawyer to deliver positively for him in a timely manner, one source close to the businessman said.
"Skeng believes that Gayle Nelson can do a good job, because let's face it, Nelson knows his law and he has been in form lately," the source said.
Nelson represented defeated political candidate Abe Dabdoub in the dual citizenship row involving present information minister Daryl Vaz.
Nelson only last week filed a legal cost claim in court against Vaz amounting to more than $49 million.
"He has briefed me verbally already, but like I have said, I wouldn't want to say anything until I have gone through the papers," Nelson said.
HAJ's managing director Joseph Shoucair confirmed that there was an unsettled matter involving Black and his agency, but declined to go into detail.
"There is a claim by Black Brothers and we had some difficulties with the claim," said Shoucair. "We have made the appropriate recommendation as to how it should be dealt with. We have some concerns about it and we have expressed those concerns."
Black Brothers has worked with several Provident Societies under the Operation Pride programme, most of which the then NHDC managed and financed.
Black is no stranger to high-profile lawsuits. In one of his famous legal missions, he hauled former Prime Minister Edward Seaga before the Supreme Court for statements that the ex-JLP leader made about him at a public function in 2001.
Black, who was represented then by attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, filed the suit after the veteran politician, now a senior fellow at the University of the West Indies, raised questions about Black's intellect and training, while delving into the operations of Black Brothers.
Seaga claimed qualified privilege, as he argued that he was the opposition leader and therefore should be allowed to make such comments.
The parties agreed not to proceed to trial and a Supreme Court judge ruled in December 2003 that Seaga should apologise in the major newspapers, on television stations and on two radio stations. He was also requested to pay legal costs of $500,000.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._HIS_MONEY.asp
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