On Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed a new inquiry into the case against Hopewell and ordered the Thai government to pay 24 billion baht in compensation to the company.
The Transport Ministry and the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) reopened a case scrutinizing the legal registration of Hopewell (Thailand) on December 2019.
They filed the case with the Administrative Court against Hopewell’s partnership registration and the Department of Business Development for accepting it back in 1990.
Prior to the inquiry, both the ministry and the SRT were already fighting in court with the company as the agencies had been ordered to pay 24 billion baht in compensation for terminating its contract to build a 60-kilometre elevated highway and rail tracks in 1998.
The two agencies ordered the inquiry in a bid to have the contract declared invalid since the name of the company on the contract was Hopewell (Thailand) and not Hopewell (Hong Kong).
If the contract was deemed to be invalid then they would not have to pay the compensation.
However, on Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the Administrative Court of First Instance’s decision not to listen to any new inquiry into the case.
They also ordered the two government agencies to pay the compensation which is 11.8 billion baht in principal and 7.5 per cent in interest with a cumulative total of 24 billion baht.
