After a five years’ fight that started at the Intermediate Court and led to an appeal to the Supreme Court, the case between Bashir Ahmud Khodabux and National Housing Development Company was settled for Rs 450,000 in the presence of Judge Benjamin Marie Joseph and Renuka Devi Dabee.
Appointed on 18 July 2011 for a period of 3 years, Bashir Ahmud Khodabux (‘Bashir Khodabux’) was the Managing Director of the National Housing Development Company (‘NHDC’) Ltd. As per one of the clauses of his employment contract, Bashir Khodabux reserved the right “to purchase the company car allotted to him at the residual value upon the completion or termination of the contract.”
His contract was renewed after three years in July 2014. However, following the change in government in 2014, he resigned. On 2nd March 2015, i.e., eight months after the completion of his initial contract, the former Managing Director wrote to the NHDC to inform them that he wants to exercise his right to purchase the company car. The reply received was that the matter had been referred to the Ministry of Housing, Land Use and Planning.
Given that there was no additional response, Bashir Khodabux served a ‘mise en demeure’ to the NHDC’s management on 10 July 2015. Upon their inaction despite the legal document served, he sued them at the Intermediate Court for breach of contract and requested damages amounting to Rs 500,000.
The request of the former Managing Director was refused by the NHDC on the ground that he attempted to exercise his right to purchase eight months after the completion of the initial contract. However, Bashir Khodabux contended that there was no time limit to the clause of the contract.
The Court was faced with the legal issue of interpreting whether the clause was bound by an implied time limit given that there was no explicit mention of any timeframe for the validity of the clause.
Nevertheless, the Magistrate N Senevrayar-Cunden highlighted that, pursuant to article 1156 of the Code Civil Mauricien, the Court has to give effect to the common intention of the parties. She stated that the parties could not have intended that an “indefinite delay be granted …to request the car following the completion of the contract”. Furthermore, the term “upon the completion” in the clause should be given its ordinary meaning which is ‘immediately after the completion’.
As such, the Intermediate Court was of the opinion that given Bashir Khodabux failed to exercise his right or mention his intention to exercise his right concerning the company car immediately after completion of the contract, it was implied that he had waived his right under clause c(iii). Therefore, on 11 September 2020, the Magistrate ruled that Bashir Khodabux had not been able to prove that he was entitled to purchase the car he had used during the tenure of his office.
However, despite the judgment being in favour of NHDC, the former Managing Director of the NHDC did not give up and appealed to the Supreme Court. On Monday 26th July 2021, the case was withdrawn from the Supreme Court following an agreement between both parties whereby NHDC will pay Bashir Khodabux Rs 450,000.
