Breakfast Shed under pressure from lawyer

The stall owners’ president, Bernadette Smith, told Sunday Newsday they did not have money to pay legal fees to their former attorney as they had accepted the relocation site.

"We don’t have any money to pay that. We took the building. We still intend to give him some money even though he doesn’t want to speak with us," she said. Smith said the stall owners made numerous attempts to meet with Brown, but to no avail.

"The last time we asked to speak with him, we were sent a letter with the fees that we owe to him," she stated.

Five of the stall owners have accepted the compensation package instead of moving to the new location at the eastern side of the port project and the Brian Lara Promenade. The Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) gave stall owners the choice of accepting the package or moving to the relocation site.

Ten stall owners will move to the new location, which is now being constructed by Udecott. On Friday, Udecott put up a sign at the relocation site at Wrightson Road and the Brian Lara Promenade, and Smith said she was happy with the site.

In a letter dated April 22, Munroe charged stall owners for the billing period from December 7, 2004, to March 10, 2005.

His letter opened with Breakfast Shed and Udecott negotiations, stating that he had forced Udecott to raise its offer of $15,000 per stall owner to $300,000 per stall owner.

The stall owners were given until May 2 to settle their account with Brown, or legal proceedings would be taken against them.

According to the letter, legal services for professional fees amounted to $15,000; attending to conferences $3,200; services including a consultant’s fee — $5,333.34. Public relations campaign fees were listed for Power 102, Gayelle TV, TV6 and press, with the total coming to $8,666.69.

Disbursement and expenses such as travel, stationery and ink, telephone and tax totalled $272. The total is $27,305.36 per stall, which was confirmed by Smith.

Attempts to contact Brown and Udecott CEO Winston Agard proved futile.