High Court revoke lower court's order asking Sun Travels to pay Hilton

The High Court on Thursday overturned the order by the Civil Court ordering Sun Travels and Tours to pay over USD 28 million to Hilton International.

A formal agreement was made between Sun Travel and Hilton regarding the management of ‘Irufushi Beach Resort and Spa’ on February 27, 2009.

However, the agreement was terminated on April 30, 2013, by Sun Travel, stating that Hilton had breached the contract.

Subsequently, Hilton filed a lawsuit with the International Arbitration Court.

The ruling by Singapore’s Arbitration in August 2015 favoured Hilton and had asked Sun Travels to pay USD 24 million in damages.

Following this, Hilton took the Arbitration Court’s order to the Civil Court of Maldives.

The Civil Court ordered Sun Travel to pay the amount within one month, with applicable fines. The total of this amounted to over USD 28 million. The court had also ordered to freeze of some of the accounts of the company, and gained over USD 1 million.

Sun Travels appealed this ruling at the High Court. With two out of the three presiding judges ruling in favour of Sun Travels, the lower court’s sentencing was overruled.

In the declarative statement, Judge Mohamed Faisal and Judge Hussain Shaheed stated that prior to ordering enforcement, such as case needs to be reviewed by a local court.