Can a case be filed on Licensor basis LOI
Would like to discuss a case with the group.
A Private Limited company discussed following terms with a public Limited company in presence of a middleman.
1. 9 years lease (with 3 years lock in for licensee) for a 12000 Sqft piece of land within an amusement park. Idea was to develop an Indoor Air Conditioned amusement facility.
2. The land was leased on a fixed rental and some %age of revenue sharing.
3. The indoor facility will get a dedicated access for customers to come in. Thus customers need not buy the generic amusement park ticket.
4. Customers will get access to the indoor facility as per Licensee operational timings, even though bigger park may have closed as per its operational timings.
Soon after an LOI was signed between both the parties which clearly mention point 1 & 2, however point 3 & 4 were not mentioned in LOI with an idea that LOI is understanding document and details will be mentioned in agreement.
At the time of LOI signing, Licensee paid Licensor one month of rent as security deposit.
At this point in time Licensor mentioned that agreement will take a few months and we should start the construction, usually all their agreements happen 6 months down the line. In fact many licensee are operating in their premises without agreement.
So, the Licensee started the work and in parallel revisions were being done for the detailed agreement. It took good 5-6 months to develop the facility with an estimated expenditure of RS 3 Cr.
By this time agreement was finalised and signed by the licensee and passed on to Licensor for signing and registration. Even E stamp papers were bought for registration by the Licensee.
At this stage there were some changes in the management team, although people who signed the LOI are still part of management group. Now they have halted all work and are lingering the signing of the agreement. We fear that they are looking at changing the agreement all together.
As a next step, we would like to put up a case in the court basis following points :
1. We have a signed LOI.
2. There are bank transactions to show that money has been paid to Licensor by Licensee at the time of LOI signing.
3. The middleman agrees that all the above mentioned points were discussed and agreed by Licensor.
4. Have emails from Licensor with draft of agreement which states all the above mentioned points.
Asked 7 years ago in Business Law
Thanks for your response. Seems like we have a strong case to file a suit against the Licensor. I would request some more information from your side:
1. In which particular type of court will this case be filed. Both Licensee and Licensor have companies established in Delhi
2. How much would it cost to issue the legal notice and what would be the approx legal fee of yours for fighting this case.
3. usually how long would court take before a final verdict can be announced.
4. We have invested approx Rs 3 CR in CAPEX. Most of this cost was spent between Jan 2018- Oct 2018. Would like to understand what amount of claim can be filed in the suit.
Asked 7 years ago