(Kaieteur News) – The Full Court on Tuesday lifted preservation orders against the State in a dispute involving Vienna-based healthcare infrastructure company VAMED Engineering GmbH over the construction of the Georgetown Paediatric and Maternal Hospital (GPMH) and the New Amsterdam Hospital Campus (NAHC).
The ruling clears the way for the Ministry of Health to take possession of the project sites, containers, equipment and construction materials and proceed with the projects.
According to a press release from the Attorney General Chambers, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, had appealed orders made against the State in proceedings brought by VAMED. In the Full Court, Chief Justice Navindra Singh and Justice Zamilla Ally-Seepaul set aside five orders made by Justice Renita Singh on August 6, 2026. Justice Singh had ordered the Ministry of Health to preserve the GPMH and NAHC sites, as well as 52 containers and equipment at the GPMH site, and prohibited the ministry from opening or interfering with them.
The Guyana Paediatric and Maternal Hospital
VAMED was similarly ordered to preserve the containers and equipment, while its security personnel were permitted access to the GPMH site solely to secure the items. The ministry was also ordered to preserve contractors’ documents, property, designs, plans and intellectual property. In its decision, the Full Court said the appeal concerned the validity of the five preservation orders made after the trial judge had refused VAMED’s applications for conservatory and restraining orders against the Ministry of Health.
The Full Court questioned whether, having refused the substantive interim relief sought by VAMED on both jurisdictional and discretionary grounds, the trial judge could nevertheless make substantially similar orders by characterising them as measures to preserve property.
“For the reasons which follow, we find that the Preservation Orders cannot stand. They are inconsistent with the Learned Trial Judge’s findings. Their legal foundation was inadequately established and their substantive effect was not properly considered,” the Full Court stated.
The Court held that Section 16 of the State Liability and Proceedings Act prohibits injunctions against the State in proceedings of this nature.
That prohibition, it said, could not be circumvented by describing orders regulating the State’s conduct as preservation orders or by relying on the Civil Procedure Rules.
The Full Court also found that the orders lacked the necessary statutory foundation under the Arbitration Act 2024 and conflicted with the trial judge’s findings that there was no urgency and that damages would constitute an adequate remedy.
The High Court’s refusal of VAMED’s applications for conservatory and restraining orders remains in place, as does its decision to refer the underlying contractual dispute to arbitration.
The Full Court also awarded the Attorney General GY$500,000 in costs.
At the hearing, the State was represented by Attorney General Nandlall, along with Shoshana V. Lall, Prithima Kissoon and Joshua Cullen of the Attorney General’s Chambers. VAMED was represented by Nigel Hughes of Hughes, Fields and Stoby.
Source: Kaieteur News
