Court orders Westin to pay electricity bills

February 14, 2014 4:01 PM
PHILIPSBURG - The Court of First Instance ordered The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa on Tuesday to pay almost NAf. 710,000 to utilities company GEBE in unpaid electricity bills.
 
The Westin declined to pay the electricity invoice of November 15, 2012, which amounted to NAf. 709,467.91, because GEBE was not entitled to collect any additional fees retroactively; this was the resort's position in this case.
 
GEBE had sent The Westin a letter in which it was stated that personnel inadvertently had made a mistake while reading the resort's main electricity meter between July and August 2011 after the meter had reached the maximum number of digits available in GEBE's billing administration.
 
The actual meter reading on August 18, 2011, was 3043640 and on September 20, 2011, it was 3068125. This would normally give a usage of 293,820 kilowatt hours (kWh). However, the data entered in GEBE's administration were 304364 and 306812 respectively, which yielded a difference of 29,376kWh.
 
As a result of this error only a portion of the actual usage was recorded and invoiced properly. The error initially went undetected because the resort had increased significantly the amount of electricity produced by self-generation, GEBE stated.
 
GEBE claimed The Westin had generated electricity illegally, as this was against the National Ordinance Electricity Concessions. This had led to the electricity company losing income and profit, damages for which The Westin was to be held liable.
 
The Westin had refused to pay the bill and claimed GEBE was not entitled to any retroactive payment.
However, the Court established that GEBE rightfully could claim payment of the electricity it had provided to The Westin and ordered the resort to pay the outstanding bill to the full amount, with interest, from November 25, 2012. The resort also was ordered to pay legal fees in the amount of NAf. 2,546.50.
 
The Court rejected GEBE's claim that The Westin was not entitled to generate electricity by using its generators. Judge Coen Luijks stated that the resort, represented in the court case by attorney-at-law Maarten Le Poole, had proven sufficiently that the Electricity Ordinance only forbids the generation of electricity with the purpose of supplying a third party.
 
GEBE's lawyer in this case, attorney Lucas Berman, also had made an appeal based on the permit under the Nuisance Act (Hinderwetvergunning).
 
The Judge dismissed the appeal because the permit was not aimed at protecting GEBE against possible damages caused by the resort in using its generators outside emergency situations.
 
The Nuisance Act is to protect people in the neighbourhood against nuisance caused by, for instance, noise, the Judge explained.
 
(The Daily Herald)
 
In this case GEBE was represented by attorney at law Lucas Berman of law firm Lexwell on Sint Maarten. The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa was represented by attorney Maarten Le Poole of HBN Law.
 
 

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