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Wednesday November 14, 11:17 AMIndochine, New Art Interior await hearing on four-year disputeSINGAPORE: Its red leather sofas, plush curtains, soft lighting and great food make it one of the more popular nightspots along the bustling Orchard Road. But behind the charm of Indochine's Wisma Atria outlet is a four-year dispute that is nowhere near resolution.Renovation contractor New Art Interior sued the Indochine Group in January for more than S$500,000 over work it carried out at the latter's Wisma Atria outlet in 2003. But the eight-year-old food and beverage chain, which operates 15 outlets in Singapore as well as branches in Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi and Hamburg, is fighting back. It is filing counterclaims that may exceed S$1 million. It all started in June 2003 when IndoChine conducted a tender exercise for the construction of its Wisma Atria outlet, court documents revealed. New Art Interior was awarded the contract in August 2003. Both parties agreed that the upgrades would be done within seven weeks, ending by mid-October that same year. But the Wisma Atria outlet only opened for business the following February. New Art Interior claimed that Indochine only paid part of the S$680,000 contract price initially agreed. It also claimed that the chain did not pay for additional works that amounted to $248,107, ignored invoices for a glass panel worth S$22,750 and defaulted on a further $93,000 for equipment sold and delivered to the Wisma Atria outlet. The contractors also alleged that IndoChine's constantly-changing of requirements slowed the project down, resulting in a 65-day delay and S$28,383 lost in man-hours. Indochine claimed it had paid S$524,320 of the S$680,000 but ceased payment on the balance because the works delivered by New Art Interior fell short of its expectations. It claimed that bar stools were found ruined, toilet mirrors were cracked and a glass staircase was left uncompleted, court documents showed. The chain claimed more money had to be spent on other contractors to rectify the shoddy craftsmanship. Also, it claimed these delays adversely affected business during the profitable holiday season. The loss of income was estimated to be S$1.1 million. As both sides continue to pin allegations on each other, a quick resolution looks unlikely. At a closed-door hearing last Friday in the High Court, Justice Chan Seng Onn allowed IndoChine's counter-claims to be valued but set no date for a hearing. - /ym |
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