“Hessa Al Hammadi Advocates & Legal Consultants LLC-SO obtained a landmark verdict where Dubai Cassation cancels a ruling obliging expert to pay compensation of 18 million dirhams”

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The judicial body at the Court of Cassation in Dubai issued a ruling canceling a previous decision issued by the Court of Appeal, which obligated “engineers and accounting” experts to pay compensation amounting to 18 million dirhams in a case related to their assignment to prepare technical expertise reports in a rental case.

Regarding the details of the case, the legal advisor Nassar Hussein, who defended one of the expert engineers before the Court of Cassation, said that the Rental Disputes Resolution Center in Dubai had previously assigned 4 experts, including engineers and accountants, to provide their technical opinion impartially in a private case which was a dispute over the payment of private rental dues.

It involved a dispute over the payment of private rental dues for a restaurant and cafe for 5 years and 7 months, with the value of the financial claim on the restaurant reaching 20 million dirhams.

He pointed out that the experts issued several technical reports on the dispute. However, the party that owned the restaurant, after losing its rental claim, filed a compensation lawsuit against the experts before the Dubai Courts, claiming that “the reports issued by the experts were biased towards the other party in the rental lawsuit.”

The legal advisor said, “The case has been ongoing since 2022, when the court of first instance issued its ruling rejecting the restaurant’s lawsuit, but the restaurant appealed the ruling and a tripartite expert committee was appointed to examine the validity of the technical reports issued by the experts in the rental lawsuit. The Court of Appeal ruled to oblige the experts to pay compensation amounting to 18 million dirhams.”

He continued, “Our office appealed the ruling before the Court of Cassation until it closed the case a few days ago and ruled to cancel the Court of Appeal ruling, after it had proven the accuracy of the technical reports issued by the experts (engineers and accountants).”

The legal advisor stated that the Court of Cassation’s ruling to acquit the experts is considered final, and is considered a legal precedent in this type of ruling issued against technical experts, indicating that the ruling ended with the rejection of the lawsuit filed by the restaurant and obligating it to pay fees, expenses, and attorney fees.