Court grants leave to State

THE Supreme Court has granted leave to the State to review a National Court decision last year which granted a judgment sum of more than K180 million against the State as a defendant.
Justice Derek Hartshorn, sitting as a one-man bench, also made orders for cost of the application to be included in the review.
The Petroleum Resources Gobe Ltd (PRGL) was named as the first respondent and the Mineral Resources Development Company Ltd (MRDCL) as the second respondent in the application.
The application for review came after lawyers representing the State from the solicitor-general’s office failed to appear in a National Court proceeding commencing in November 2014, where the respondents acting as the plaintiffs claimed unpaid royalties for the period of 1999–2015, in respect of the Gobe petroleum project and loss of profits.
The National Court on May 18, last year, made its decision ordering a judgment sum of K180,253,886.90 against the State for unpaid royalties, loss of profits and business among others.
The decision was made following the Listing Rules and National Court Rules to summarily dispose the matter for failure of a party or his lawyer to appear at listings or directions and hearing and non-compliance of orders and directions made at the listing process.
The State also did not file an appeal within the prescribed appeal period.
PRGL and MRDCL raised objections on the ground that the State had not strictly complied with the Supreme Court Rules but the objection was dismissed by Hartshorn stating that the rules were construed in a manner to be applied flexibly to ensure that they served the interest of justice.
Hartshorn took note that the State had not provided a reasonable explanation for failing to file an appeal within time and no proper explanation for further delays in making the application for leave to review.