Court dismisses civil suit between trio, over 800 shareholders

THE Lae District Court has dismissed a civil suit between three people and more than 800 shareholders of a company on grounds that it was an abuse of the court process.
Plaintiff Patrick Nimambot, on behalf of 881 shareholders of the Wain Producers Cooperative (WPC), last September filed a motion for an interim order to restrain Zenang Dipak and two other respondents, Joe Salak and Hautu Taraman, from interfering with WPC’s affairs. The dispute was over shareholders’ equity and ownership in WPC.
On Jan 7, Magistrate Tera Dawai refused the motion (interim order) and dismissed the case as being an abuse of court processes.
He made no order on costs.
In the motion, Nimambot filed an interim order (exparte) under Section 22 of the District Court Act asking the court to restrain the three defendants from any involvement in the affairs of the WPC over share equities and ownership. Nimambot also asked the court to restrain the respondents from acting as director and chairman of the WPC, pending a substantive hearing from the National Court between WPC and Mainland Holdings Ltd (MHL) on shareholders’ shares which was on direction hearing since last year.
According to court documents obtained by The National, the WPC has 882 shareholders and has a court case with MHL on shareholders’ shares and a case between the two parties (WPC shareholders and MHL) went before the National Court on last April 22.
The first respondent, Dipak, in her affidavit filed on last Dec 14, in response to the motion argued that Nimambot had no share in the WPC but did have shares in another local company named Namasu (now known as Kambang Holdings Ltd).
She also stated that Nimambot could not judge any shareholder as it was illegal and that the plaintiff did not produce any records, including a shares list to show that the respondents were not the true shareholders.
Dipak said Nimambot’s father owned shares with Namasu Business/ Kambang Holdings and that was where he should pursue his share.
“The plaintiff is the wrong person to claim to be the shareholder and owner of the share investment,” she said.