Spanish Construction company OHL have been granted permission to appeal the judgment given by the Technology and Construction Court in favour of the Government of Gibraltar, regarding the termination of their contract for the airport tunnel, in 2011.

The application to appeal was initially refused by the trial judge, but the Court of Appeal by Order dated 3rd October 2014 granted permission subject to certain warnings.

The judgement saw OHL pay the Government the completion costs of the development. OHL were specifically warned that the Court of Appeal would not be drawn into reviewing findings of fact. Given that the judgment of the TCC was largely based on findings of fact in the Government’s favour, they are confident that the appeal is extremely unlikely to overturn or affect the judgment of the TCC.

OHL applied for a stay of proceedings pending the appeal but the application for a stay was not granted. The appeal is due to be heard in May 2015 with the final assessment of damages set to be heard by the TCC in February 2016.