Category: Intel

The Supreme Court held that a foreign court judgment from a country with whom Oman has a bilateral agreement for the recognition and enforcement of court judgment must not be enforced if the Omani enforcement court fails to examine the original foreign judgment and verify that it meets the legal formalities before making its order to enforce it.

In a copyright infringement dispute, the Supreme Court set aside a judgment awarding compensation for copyright infringement due to the failure of the trial court to base the compensation amount on a quantification methodology that takes into account the damage suffered as a result of the copyright infringement.

The Supreme Court held that signing a new contract with an employee transferred under article 48bis of the Labour Law of 2003 is invalid if the contract provides less favourable treatment than that enjoyed by the employee with their previous employer.

The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) held that the Oman Housing Bank, a government-owned enterprise under the Oman Investment Authority, is exempt from value added tax (VAT).

The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) confirmed the right of the employer under the Standard Contract for the Construction of Buildings and Civil Works to replace a contractor with another if the first contractor goes bankrupt in accordance with article 63-1 of the Standard Contract. The MJLA noted that the exercise of this right can be restricted by the provisions of article 59 of the Civil Transactions Law, but determined that none of the cases of article 59 applied in this case.

The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) deemed that the allocation of a government building to a government entity does not automatically make that government entity a party to a construction contract relating to that building when another government entity has been explicitly assigned the obligations relating to this contract by royal decree.

The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) adopted a literal interpretation of article 52-3 of the Standard Contract for the Construction of Buildings and Civil Works, Fourth Edition 1999 stipulating that the contractor is entitled to a revision of the contract value if the cumulative value of the variation orders exceeds 10% of the original contract value.

The Supreme Court confirmed that both the contractor and the engineer are jointly liable for defects in a construction project for a period of ten years from the completion of the project, irrespective of what the contract says, in accordance with articles 634 and 635 of the Civil Transactions Law.

The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) deemed that the first sale of real estate by the developer in integrated tourism complexes is not exempt from value added tax (VAT).

The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) deemed the Corporate Governance Principles for Government-Owned Companies issued by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to be invalid due to the failure of the CMA to publish such principles in the Official Gazette and the lack of competence of the Executive President of the CMA to issue them. The MJLA also held that companies subordinate to the Oman Investment Authority are not exempt from the scope of such principles.