Lideta Federal High Court passed a verdict against Tidhar Excavation & Earth Moving Ltd. in its civil suit with Dalol Oil S.C., ordering the former to pay 39 million Br in summary procedure.
The amount of birr the court ordered Tidhar to pay was the amount of debt it owed to Dalol after a business deal they entered into in 2014. The terms of the deal covered details for the supply of bitumen by Dalol to Tidhar for the Wingate-Pastor road in Addis Abeba. This road is one among four road construction projects that were awarded to Tidhar. Excavator has been suspended since the company stopped operation.
Dalol received a Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) cheque from Tidhar on January 7, 2015, but it was unable to collect the money on March 17, 2015, because of insufficient funds, according to the company’s lawyer, Gebreamlak Gebregiorgis.
Dalol, a fuel, lubricant and related products distributing company, submitted its allegation for the recovery of its money based on a special procedure without the need for an ordinary hearing that is applicable in cases of recovering liquidated debts, simple contracts, promissory notes and other simple contractual debts. Tidhar could not have any defense that disproves the evidence provided by Dalol, the accuser also claimed.
The court gave Tidhar a chance to comment on the requested summary procedure and present its defense against the allegation. But Tidhar did not come up with any defense, or response to the claims made against it. Hence the court ruled that Tidhar should pay 39 million Br to Dalol plus the interest, starting from the date when the debt should have been paid.
This recent ruling was made in a situation where Tidhar, which had been taken part in various projects, including a road project supplementing the Addis Abeba Light Railway project, was charged with tax evasion to the tune of 130 million Br between 2010 and 2012. The company’s General Manager, Menashe Levy, is also now in custody, facing charges of bribery, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Tidhar was also subject of an earlier ruling made against it by the Federal High Court ordering the company to pay 892,745 Br to a plaintiff, Temule General Trading. Temule had claimed that Tidhar had not paid for a heavy truck it had rented. Tidhar had unsuccessfully objected to the amount of the claim, adding also that it was unable to make any payments because the tax authority had taken all the relevant documents.
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