Banana Enterprises Take Island Holdings to Court Over Dredging Contract

Zaid Flores

Banana Enterprises Limited, a subsidiary of the Big Creek Group, is taking Island Holdings Limited, the parent company for Harvest Caye, to court for non-payment, following a business deal turned sour. Island Holdings, we understand, contracted the services of Banana Enterprises to purchase a dredge in order to clear a channel for Norwegian Cruise Line vessels to approach Harvest Caye.  Banana Enterprises bought the machine, only to find out that it could not get the job done and subsequently a bigger dredge was brought in by another company to conduct the underwater digging on behalf of IHL.  That was several years ago and Banana Enterprises has since attempted to collect on its payment from IHL to no avail.  Today, the case came before Justice Courtenay Abel, who explained to both parties that they should be able to sort out the financials and he will rule on principle.  Following this evening’s session, Zaid Flores, the Managing Director of Belize Enterprise Limited spoke with the media.

Zaid Flores, Managing Director, Belize Enterprise Limited

“I think we tried very hard to settle out of court.  The judge had ordered, I think, three mediations and we couldn’t reach any consensus.  We even traveled to Miami to try and sit down and we couldn’t reach any agreement so we had no other choice but to try and return to the court and get it settled.”

Reporter

“Give us a brief outlook as to the dispute and some of the most important elements of it.”

Zaid Flores

“Well I can’t say much at this time because the hearing is on, but we have them in court here for two parts really, non-payment of an account which after three and a half years they finally admitted liability.  I think there is a difference in the sum and that should be settled out by tomorrow and the next part of it has to do with damages which they had us buy a dredge that wasn’t able to do the job for them and wasn’t able to do the job for us and we had no choice but to sue them on those two grounds.  I think the first one with the account is like night and day, very clear and I think that will be sorted out.  In fact, that’s the impression I got just before we wrapped up this evening.”