A court case pitting a hospitality firm against the Delamere Estate management over leased land is taking a new twist after one of the firm's owners decided to sue the other as reported by Daily Nation on Thursday, February 6.
The disputed 262-hectare parcel of land houses the Sleeping Warrior Lodge.
Jacqueline Damon and Jean Francois a married couple, now estranged, differed on a suit filed against Hugh Cholmondeley and Philip Coulson, owners of the Delamere Estate.
Francois dissociated himself from the suit filed by his estranged wife Damon, who went up against a notice served by the Delamere Estate to terminate their lease on the expansive farm.
The businessman who alleged to be the majority shareholder of the development, argued before the court on Wednesday, February 5, that his wife had no right to file a solitary suit against the estate's management.
Existent deliberations in a prior sworn affidavit dated January 24, Francois had accused his wife of misleading the court by pretending to be the firm's spokesperson.
"The suit is misconceived, scandalous, vexatious, abuse of court process and lacks merit. It jeopardises the existing negotiations to have the lease subsist," Francois argued.
The publication reported that Damon had first moved to court in February 2019 seeking to block the Estate from an alleged premature termination of the lease dated July 6, 2007. The lease was reportedly to run for 35 years.
She accused Cholmondeley and Coulson of illicitly ending the agreement.
The businesswoman alleged that on March 11, 2017, a fire razed down a section of the lodge resulting in subsequent losses by the company. It was after the incident that the estate opted to terminate the lease.
In a sworn affidavit, Coulson argued that the hospitality firm failed to reconstruct the lodge which as a result led to a depreciation in the value of the property.
They defended their decision to terminate the lease arguing that the firm had neglected the property.
Justice John Mutungi gave Damon until February 25, to file a response to the application by her husband.
