Source: Emarat Al Youm – Abu Dhabi
The Abu Dhabi Commercial Court (Court of First Instance) ruled that a company must pay another company an amount of AED 705,069, representing outstanding dues for insurance brokerage services.
In the details, a company filed a lawsuit against another company, requesting that it be ordered to pay AED 705,069, representing outstanding dues for insurance brokerage services, after the defendant breached its obligations and failed to pay the amounts owed.
The plaintiff also requested that the defendant be ordered to pay legal interest at a rate of 9% from the date of the claim until full settlement, in addition to fees, expenses, and legal costs.
To support its claim, the plaintiff submitted copies of documents, including a copy of the contract and a copy of an account statement.
Meanwhile, the defendant’s legal representative submitted a memorandum requesting, before a ruling on the merits, the appointment of an accounting expert, while reserving the defendant’s right to file a counterclaim based on the expert report, and requesting that the plaintiff be ordered to bear the fees, expenses, and legal costs.
On its part, the court explained in its reasoning that, according to the established provisions of the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions, the mandatory commercial books of a merchant constitute evidence in favour of their owner against another merchant, provided that the dispute relates to a commercial transaction and that the books are properly maintained and organized.
The court noted that the account statement issued by the plaintiff and attached to the statement of claim is considered a form of regular commercial records that have evidentiary value in commercial matters. It further stated that the case file contained no evidence to contradict the existence of the transaction between the plaintiff and the defendant as described above, nor to dispute that the defendant’s liability had been established as a result of this transaction in favour of the plaintiff for the claimed amount.
Accordingly, the court held that the account statement is binding on the defendant and relied upon it in its judgment.
Regarding the request for interest, the court noted that since the defendant company’s liability for the claimed amount in favour of the plaintiff company had been established, and the amount was certain and its payment had been delayed, and since the case file contained no evidence that the defendant had settled the debt, the conditions for awarding the plaintiff default interest were satisfied.
The court ruled that the defendant company must pay the plaintiff AED 705,069, along with default interest on the awarded amount at a rate of 3% per annum from the date of the claim until full payment, provided that it does not exceed the principal debt.
The court also ordered the defendant to bear the court costs and to pay AED 200 as attorney’s fees.