SXMElections.com

MARIGOT--The former tenants of the original Bikini and Kon Tiki Restaurants on Orient Beach, Elisa Cohen and Philippe Just, have been awarded unspecified damages by the Collectivité and Sindextour, represented by Norbert Luftman, following an administrative court ruling in St. Martin on Friday that cancelled the temporary occupation permits (AOTs) for parcel AW33 issued by the Collectivité to Sindextour.

The long-running case against Sindextour saw both Cohen and Just evicted from the two restaurants by bailiffs in September 2013.

The AOTs were issued to Sindextour following a second vote by the Executive Council on September 4, 2012, following a vote on the issue in July of that year. The Collectivité's convention with Sindextour expired in 2009. At the same time Cohen and Just also applied for AOTs in their own names, but were denied the permits and consequently contested the issuance of the AOTs to Sindextour, claiming procedures had not been followed legally.

"The Préfet at the time also questioned the Collectivité, saying he did not think the AOT was issued legally," Cohen explained to The Daily Herald. "He took it to court on the issue of whether the contract written for Luftman and the way it was voted were legal. Now a legal commission has studied the way they wrote these AOTs and advised the court that they were illegally written and voted and should be voided. We have been waiting for this decision and finally the judge has ruled in our favour.

"From 2009 when Luftman did not have an AOT we paid rent to someone who did not have the right to take our money. He subsequently gave that money to the Collectivité and he didn't have the right to give it to them anymore because he no longer had a contract with them. He evicted us, but didn't have the right to do it because the AOT was illegal."

Cohen said this first victory cleared the way for her lawyer to pursue for more damages from Sindextour for the evictions, illegally collecting rent, liquidation of her business and termination of employees.

"I want my indemnity; I want something for the 21 years I've been paying rent, declaring my employees, running my business. My business was stolen from me. If the indemnity includes getting my restaurant back, I can arrange that. I want something that says I was there 21 years, I played by the rules, and the law is going to protect me."

She admitted the Justice System up to now in Guadeloupe had been "a complete mess" and that for two years she routinely had been told by the court she had no rights.

"I did get really depressed. Either every judge had been bought or the world was upside down, because nothing made any sense. The only thing that made sense was that from the very beginning we insisted the vote on the AOT was illegal. Actually, it is the Préfet who won," she said.

The initial damages awarded will go towards more legal bills that will come up as the two plaintiffs pursue for more compensation.

"We have to figure where we are going with this, how much we are going to ask for, what we want, and we have to watch closely what the Collectivité is going to do," Cohen continued. "We still have the option of the civil suit against Guillaume Arnell, José Carti and Luftman which is still valid and we have to decide about that.

"I don't know what the Collectivité is going to do now about the cancelled AOT; they will have to rethink their whole strategy. They could give it to him (Luftman) again, but now with the Préfet on top of it, it's risky. Certainly no contract can be given retroactively."