Court orders businessman to pay PTSC $167,000
A Tacarigua businessman has been ordered to pay a little over $167,000 in arrears to the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) for the rental of two booths at its Transit Mall in San Juan.
High Court Judge Frank Seepersad ordered the compensation on Tuesday, as he dismissed Stanislaus Huggins’ lawsuit against the corporation and upheld its counterclaim against him at the end of a brief trial at the Waterfront Judicial Centre in Port-of-Spain.
In the lawsuit, Huggins, who operates a defensive driving school, claimed that PTSC breached its tenancy agreement with him.
Testifying in the case yesterday, Huggins, who represented himself, claimed his commercial relationship with PTSC began in August 2018, when he began sharing a booth with another tenant at the mall.
Huggins claimed that although he was concerned that he received receipts in the other tenant’s name after paying his $665 monthly rent, he continued to do so before he eventually stopped due to the corporation’s delays in rectifying its records.
Huggins admitted that in August 2020, he agreed to relocate to two other booths costing $1,446.60 and $2,250 per month respectively.
He admitted that he continued to occupy the new booths despite continuing to not pay rent, as he did not receive monthly invoices as with the previous booth he shared.
“I went to them to make the payments but I was told that my name was not in the system,” he said
“It made me feel like I was squatting. It was like a disrespect,” he added.
Huggins filed the lawsuit after PTSC attempted to evict him and he obtained a temporary injunction blocking the move.
Although the injunction subsequently expired, PTSC still agreed to allow Huggins to remain in occupation of the booths until the lawsuit was determined.
Huggins repeatedly acknowledged his debt to PTSC but requested that Justice Seepersad intervene to set a payment plan.
PTSC did not present any witnesses in the case, as its lawyers admitted the employee familiar with the rental agreement had left the corporation and could not be located to testify.
In deciding the case, Justice Seepersad ruled that Huggins’ case was devoid of merit, as he always had a valid tenancy agreement.
While Justice Seepersad ruled that PTSC was entitled to the arrears, he said he could not vary the agreement to include a debt repayment plan as suggested.
However, Justice Seepersad granted a 90-day stay of execution on the judgement to give Huggins time to pay. He also advised Huggins that he could hold further negotiations with PTSC over the issue but warned that his arrears would continue to increase once he continues to occupy the booths.
Huggins was also ordered to pay PTSC $14,000 in legal costs for defending the lawsuit.
PTSC was represented by Nirad Ramrekersingh and Richard Freeman.
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