Deepwater struggle

Dessaport International Corporation has launched a counter suit against the Polish Treasury for $75 (zł.161) million in damages after a long legal battle to finish the stalled production of Europort in Gdańsk.

Donald LeBlanc, president of Dessaport and a technical expert for Europort, along with Joseph D'Andrea, Europort's junior partner, sank $40 (zł.86) million into a venture to build Poland's first deep-water port terminal. The partnership, formed decades ago, has endured nine years of legal battles as the two investors have fought with Poland's government for their property rights.

The new port would be the first deep-water grain terminal to handle large vessels importing and exporting crops to and from global markets, particularly South America. Many of the imported crops will be sent on to other parts of Europe, according to LeBlanc.

"To the best of my knowledge there were people who didn't want this terminal built," said LeBlanc. "Those people made a very serious effort to stop it because it would compete with another terminal in Poland, a much smaller terminal," he added, referring to Budexport, another port terminal in the city.

Stalled plans

Under initial plans, construction began in late 1998 but since 2002, the Gdańsk port authority has been in and out of court with Dessaport and construction has stalled. The port authority wrote numerous letters to Dessaport stating that their lease had been cancelled.

"We were rather surprised. There are legal steps involved and they didn't [take them]. They just wrote us a letter," he said. The letters stated that the company owed zł.66 million to the port authority. LeBlanc denies that his company owed any money to the port authority.

Representatives of the Gdańsk port authority were unavailable for comment.

Government hijinx

The accusations led to complex negotiations which forced Dessaport stop construction. The government changed in 2005, adding another level of lack of cooperation, said LeBlanc. He added that the current government is violating its own pro-business mandate and holding up construction of a project that was approved before they came to power.

"This is a situation where the management of the government-owned facility is not acting in the interest of the government," he said.

LeBlanc finds it unfair that Budexport, which has a similar lease with the port authority, was allowed to continue construction of its port facility while Europort was stuck in court. "This was discrimination," said LeBlanc. "We have all the documentation that shows all the concessions that were given to [Rudoport]."

After the Law and Justice-led government came to power in 2005, LeBlanc said things got much worse. "Our security guards were threatened with firearms if they did not get off the property."

Countersuit hopes

For a while LeBlanc attended two or three hearings per each court claim without filing his own lawsuit. In February, however, Dessaport countered the most recent suit with a $75 (zł.161) million damage claim which also affords the firm the right to counter claim again in the future for the increased sum of $180 (zł.386) million. The counter claim came as a surprise and the courts stopped all proceedings.

LeBlanc hopes that if there is a $180 (zł.386) million decision in his firm's favor, the State Treasury won't want to deal with the mess. "It's a big investment and there are companies that still want this terminal to be built," he said.