Airport services company Menzies Aviation (Namibia) has again filed an urgent application in the High Court, hot on the heels of its latest loss in a case in which it was trying to regain possession of areas at Hosea Kutako International Airport from which it was evicted about two weeks ago.
Menzies suffered the loss in a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.
In the judgement, judge Hannelie Prinsloo dismissed the company’s application for an order directing the Namibia Airports Company (NAC), Menzies’ competitor Paragon Investment Holdings, the deputy sheriff of the High Court for the district of Windhoek, the Namibian Civil Aviation Authority and the Namibian Police to restore to Menzies possession of areas it had rented at Hosea Kutako International Airport.
The NAC, with assistance from the deputy sheriff and the police, evicted Menzies from the airport, where it had been providing ground handling services since the start of 2014, on 19 August, when Paragon took over the ground handling services.
In its latest legal manoeuvre in a long-running legal battle with the NAC and Paragon, Menzies on Friday evening filed a new application in which it is asking the High Court to order that it may return to Hosea Kutako International Airport until the NAC has given it “due notice” to vacate the premises it had been renting at the airport.
The NAC and Menzies have been involved in court battles for more than a year, after the NAC decided in December 2021 to award the contract for the provision of ground handling services at the airport to Paragon.
Menzies is contesting that award in a case that is pending in the High Court.
The NAC was granted an order for the eviction of Menzies from the airport near the end of June last year.
In the same judgement, High Court judge Orben Sibeya stated that Menzies’ contract with the NAC for the provision of ground handling services was to end at the close of June last year.
Menzies appealed against that judgement, and continued to provide ground handling services at the airport after that. The Supreme Court dismissed the company’s appeal in June this year.
Menzies refused to vacate the airport after the delivery of the Supreme Court’s judgement, and sued the NAC and Paragon in the High Court in a case in which it claimed the NAC had given it unreasonably short notice after the Supreme Court’s judgement to vacate the areas it had been renting at the airport.
Menzies also asked the court to suspend the initial court order authorising its eviction from the airport.
In a judgement on that application, judge Shafimana Ueitele refused to suspend the initial eviction order, but remarked that order had been overtaken by subsequent events and that the NAC should give Menzies 30 days’ notice to vacate the airport.
Ueitele did not issue an order directing the NAC to give Menzies 30 days’ notice to vacate the airport, though.
Following the delivery of Ueitele’s judgement on 8 August, the NAC notified Menzies that it had to vacate the airport by 10 September. Menzies’ response was that it was not accepting the notice and that it is entitled to be given 12 months’ notice instead.
After Menzies lodged an appeal against part of Ueitele’s judgement, and Paragon also appealed against some of the judge’s orders, the NAC made its move to evict the company from the airport, using Sibeya’s earlier eviction order and the Supreme Court judgement as the basis for its action.
Prinsloo said in her judgement on Friday that the effect of the appeals lodged against Ueitele’s judgement is that the orders given in that judgement are suspended, pending the outcome of the appeals.
That leaves Sibeya’s judgement in which Menzies’ eviction from the airport was authorised and the Supreme Court’s judgement dismissing Menzies’ appeal against that decision as the only judgements still in effect, Prinsloo stated.
She also said the effect of those two judgements is that Menzies has no legal right to insist on continuing to provide ground handling services at the airport and to continue to occupy premises at the airport.
Menzies has given notice that it wants its new urgent application to be heard in court today.
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!
