Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:38:00 07/03/2010
Filed Under: Judiciary (system of justice)
AN INTERIOR DESIGN FIRM IS FACING A P5 million damage suit filed in a Valenzuela City court by a university professor for what he claimed was a botched renovation plan for an ancestral house.
Robert Bjorn Santos, corporate secretary and a professor at the Our Lady of Fatima University has taken Grupo Santamaria owner Nina Santamaria to court for allegedly reneging on their obligations in the renovation of his house in Valenzuela.
Santos complained that the renovations were not completed within the period of time agreed upon in the contract due to the interior designer’s neglect. This, he said, resulted in the undue delay of the project causing inconveniences.
Nina Santamaria with Pamela Picazo of Louis Vuittons
According to Santos’ complaint, he was sleeping on a couch at the renovated dressing room while waiting for the repairs on his bedroom to be over.
During delayed renovations, he also had to bear the difficulty of using a bathroom downstairs for twice-a-night trips to the toilet as a borderline diabetic with a hyperactive bladder.
Apart from delays, Santos also asked to be reimbursed for what he claimed were several defects in the repairs done by Grupo Santamaria.
According to the complainant, the urinals made for his young nephew in the bathroom were too high for the child. There were also missing tiles on the mosaic inside the bath which, he said, diminished the desired effect of the design.
Santos said he sought to rescind his contract with the design firm on January 2010. By that time, he claimed he already shelled out P4.9 million in construction costs and P160,000 for professional fees.
Santamaria, however, told Inquirer that the delays were mainly due to unforeseen circumstances on the suppliers’ end and on the physical defects of the ancestral house, of which she had no control.
She added that three suppliers had not delivered their materials on time, but her contract with Santos clearly did not make her responsible for such third-party accountabilities that were beyond her control.
“Additional work would of course require us to put in additional time and also delay the project,” she said.
