A court will decide next month whether documents relating to a £50m claim of allegations of negligence by a government department can be released.

Sondica Group Ltd claims the Department of Infrastructure had carelessly made a representation of fact that was relied on by the group.

The roots of this case stretch back to 2015 when the Department of Infrastructure sought expressions of interest in bidding and tendering for a scheme to develop the former Lord Street bus station site in Douglas. 

The eventual winner of that process was Kane Limited and no wrongdoing on its behalf has been alleged. 

However, before that was announced, Sondica, representing North Quay Consortium, had been selected as the preferred bidder.

Today First Deemster Andrew Corlett heard an application by Sondica’s lawyer Vicky Unsworth to allow her to release confidential documents related to the Kane bid to her client. 

Up until now, the documents were released as part of a disclosure process which only allowed those documents to be seen by the government and Mrs Unsworth and her colleagues.

Due to the commercial sensitivity of the documents, Sondica, which Mrs Unsworth outlined had made the ‘rival bid’, is not allowed to see them. 

As Kane Ltd is not an interested party in this case, Sondica is not claiming that it did anything wrong. The company has not been asked to release documents to its rival bidder. 

However, Deemster Corlett said that for the case to continue, Kane Ltd must be given the opportunity to involve itself in the case, which he summarised as ‘essentially a claim against the government departments for negligence, breach of contract and misfeasance in public office’.

He added that it was ‘necessary to see the whole picture’, which would include Kane Ltd’s contracts as they would likely need to be seen in the court if the case is to proceed.

Deemster Corlett said he wanted to find a way forward as this issue is one of ‘some public concern’. 

Caren Pegg, representing Lambert Smith Hampton, which was appointed to provide independent valuation advice, said that her client was surprised to be before the court as before papers were served last month, it had heard nothing of the case since July 2022. 

Mrs Pegg said that the issues ‘need to be crystalised’ before any further disclosure is held, but said that Lambert Smith Hampton is ‘playing a back seat role’ to proceedings. 

Keiron Murray, representing the Attorney General’s Chambers, said that the court was dealing with two separate matters, one being Sondica’s claim and the other being Kane Ltd’s commercially-sensitive documents. 

He added that there is a ‘wider public interest in getting development going’. 

Deemster Corlett ordered that Kane Ltd be served with the application and be given 28 days to respond.

Following that, the matter will return to the court on August 29 for a case management hearing.