Oman Ltd v Bevad Ltd

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF JAMAICA

IN THE CIVIL DIVISION

SUIT NO. 0-009 OF 2002

BETWEEN OMAN LIMITED CLAIMANT

AND BEVAD LIMITED DEFENDANT

Lloyd Barnett and Keith Bishop instructed by Keith Bishop and Company for claimant.

Patrick Bailey and Gillian Mullings instructed by Patrick Bailey & Company for defendant

Heard: March 8, Julv 12 and 13,2004, September 19 and 20, and November 15,2005

JONES, J: . . ..-

['I] When Paul Harris, building contractor of Oman Limited, agreed to purchase from

Bevad Limited a half acre lot with an approved plan for the construction of an apartment

complex in an upscale St Andgw community, he was hoping for an "Ozymandian momentn.

Ozymandias, you will recall, was an Egyptian pharaoh who provided the nineteenth

century English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-18221, with the creative spirit to write a

poem in which a 'traveller from an antique land" comes face to face with the broken remains

of a "half sunk" statue in the desert, on the base of which, appeared the words: "My

name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

[2] For Paul Harris, sadly, this was not to be. He complained that Dixie Adams, of Bevad

Limited, fraudulently misrepresented to him the precise lot for sale, and the content of the

- "approved plans" for the proposed development. As a result, he filed an action in this court

on October 18, 2002, seeking rescission of both the contract for sale of the lot and the