FRU applies for stay on court proceedings

High Court Judge, Justice Kamal Kumar will deliver the ruling later this month relating to an application made by the Fiji Rugby Union lawyers today that there should be a stay on the proceedings filed by Digicel against the FRU relating to the rugby sponsorship case.

FRU lawyer, Nilesh Lajendra requested for a stay on the case and said that this is based on certain sections of the sponsorship contract between Digicel and FRU.

Lajendra said the contract states that any disputes between the two parties should be referred to arbitration within 30 days. 

Lajendra said Digicel took the matter straight to court which is contrary to what the parties had agreed to in the contract.

Nilesh Lajendra then highlighted a letter written by Digicel Fiji CEO, Maurice McCarthy to the FRU on the 6th of December last year where McCarthy said that Digicel is providing a competitive offer in their option to match and due to the delay in the acceptance of the offer, Digicel was moving to take the matter to court. 

McCarthy had said that the repeated disregard of their rights must be addressed and all they wanted was the option to match offer be guaranteed. 

FRU’s lawyer, Lajendra said they could have taken the matter to arbitration from that point with the 30 days time-frame available.

He said this is a specialised nature of the contract which requires an arbitrator who has specialised knowledge on sports sponsorships.

Lajendra said this is a clear case where a stay must be granted.     

 

Digicel lawyer, Queens Counsel Doctor Tom Turner opposed the stay application on Digicel’s proceedings saying that the FRU is already part of the proceedings.

Turner also highlighted an affidavit by FRU director Baljeet Singh where Singh said that the FRU intends to defend the matter before the courts.

Turner said based on this, there is an express waiver by the FRU to go to arbitration.

Vodafone lawyer, Suruj Sharma who was also in court said he will make a joint application in the case but this will only be determined after the ruling on the stay proceedings by Justice Kamal Kumar.

Digicel has taken the FRU to court after the FRU signed off the $40 million sponsorship deal with the consortium led by Vodafone.

Digicel is arguing that they had matched the offer and should have been given the sponsorship.

Justice Kumar will deliver his ruling on FRU’s application for stay on the proceedings on the 25th of this month.