I recently read an article in one of the St.Maarten papers that a local art gallery had been ordered by the Common Court of Justice to pay a $75,000.00 penalty after they failed to deliver a $900.00 table. The article stated that Anguilla-based attorney Joyce Kentish had paid for the table, which was never received from the gallery and she later, took the gallery to court. Kudos to Mrs. Kentish for pursuing this, I hope she receives every dime the court awarded her.
The reason I'm so happy with the court's decision is that a good friend of mine had a similar experience with the same gallery. In my friend's case he purchased a model ship and some wooden bowls at a total cost of $656.00 which included shipping and insurance. Like Mrs. Kentish, he never received his merchandise despite repeated inquires to the gallery.
In an attempt to rectify this problem, I contacted then Commissioner of Tourism Theo Heyliger, made him aware of the situation and asked him for his help. At the same time, I made the Commissioner aware of the fact that my friend was in the process of having a 161-ft. mega-yacht built. Despite several requests for his help in this matter, the Commissioner chose to do nothing.
I later contacted a well-respected local marina owner and asked if he might be able to help, despite his promise to look into it, again nothing happened.
My friend took delivery of his latest yacht in early 2009, it has since spent time in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Florida. In one year the yacht was chartered 9 different times at a weekly rate of 235,000 euros. He recently told me the yacht spent some weeks at a boatyard in Ft.Lauderdale for maintenance and repairs costing $150,000.00.
In this latest court case karma came back to bite the owner of the art gallery and he lost out.... BIG TIME! In the case of my friend, St.Maarten was the big loser. Not a single guilder was collected in turnover tax for fuel, provisioning, maintenance, berthing, bridge fees, fees paid to the airport to land his private jet, his crew members did not spend money in St.Maarten etc. etc. etc.. The reason being......he has not been back.
His current yacht is up for sale at the recently reduced price of US $34.5 million but since this is the 16th yacht he has owned I doubt it will be his last. He has mentioned to me that the builder of his current yacht wants to sell him a 191 footer. Will St.Maarten ever see any money generated by a future yacht? If karma has anything to do with it, I doubt it.
Andy Croxall
