The Supreme Court orders a contractor and his partner to repay 36,900 dinars and compensate a citizen
The Supreme Court’s Commercial Division ruled that a contractor and his partner are jointly and severally liable to pay a Kuwaiti national 36,979 dinars, due to their breach of obligations arising from a construction contract for building his residential unit. The court also ordered the first defendant to pay 5,000 dinars in moral damages for the psychological harm suffered by the national.
The national had filed the lawsuit through his lawyer, Ali Jawhar, initially requesting the appointment of an expert to determine the obligations and outstanding amounts, based on a construction contract signed in 2018 for building his residential unit, citing the defendants’ breach of their contractual commitments.
The court clarified in its judgment reasoning that the appointed expert concluded in his report that, after account settlement, the defendants’ liabilities were owed to the plaintiff in the amount of 36,979 dinars, and that the defendant was the party in breach of the contract.
Following the submission of the expert report and the resumption of proceedings, lawyer Ali Jawhar, on behalf of his client, submitted a request to introduce a new deduction and amend the claims, asking the court to hold the defendants jointly and severally liable for the amount determined in the expert report, and to award his client 5,000 dinars in compensation for moral damages resulting from the first defendant’s seizure of subsidized construction materials belonging to him.
The court expressed confidence in the expert’s report and the soundness of its foundations, noting that the defendants failed to prove payment of the outstanding amount, thereby concluding that they should be held jointly and severally liable to pay 36,979 dinars to the plaintiff.
Regarding moral damages, the court found that the psychological harm suffered by the plaintiff due to the seizure of his subsidized construction materials during the construction phase of his home constituted moral damage warranting compensation, and thus ordered the first defendant to pay 5,000 dinars as final moral damages.
