Harcourt: We didn’t think it necessary to mention lawsuit

Wednesday 11th June 2008, 2:59PM BST.

DEVELOPERS Harcourt have apologised to Chief Minister Frank Walker, WEB and the States and said that they never had any intention to mislead anyone over civil court action against them in the US.

A lawsuit against the Irish-based company was filed in Nevada for alleged breach of contract over an $800m luxury development on 30 April. This was initially denied in the States during their debate last week resulting in politicians approving the financial deal for the £330 million Esplanade development.

Harcourt director Pat Power (pictured) said that they only found out about the lawsuit against them on 22 May but failed to inform States Members.

Mr Power said that he contacted Senator Frank Walker and WEB two days earlier to say there was no action served on them in Nevada. ‘To be absolutely clear, the action may well have been filed in a Nevada court before that date, but until it is actually served on us, we would not have been aware of it,’ he said.

However, they say they were then informed by their Nevada attorney, on 22 May, that a lawsuit had been served.

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1
Rob Kent

June 12, 2008 at 12:44 am

Pat Power says they only found out about the lawsuit on 22 May. However, the lawsuit was reported in The Irish Times of May 2.

If Mr Power is not lying it means that nobody who works for or on behalf of Harcourt, an Irish company, reads The Irish Times.

Quite incredible, and unbelievable, don’t you think?

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2
pip

June 12, 2008 at 9:55 am

Harcourt say that they knew about the law suit 10 or 11 days before the states debate. However both Walker and Perchard have said that Harcourt were still denying knowledge of the law suit at the time of the debate. These are mutually exclusive statements. Who is lying?

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3
Phil

June 12, 2008 at 10:12 am

So what happens now? Well they either get the contract, because our politicians “know best” or they get paid off with our money and we all say sorry I guess? Oh, and who else was on the “open tender” list for this project?

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