A P.E.I. Supreme Court judge has denied a request for judgment against aerospace firm Testori Americas, saying he needs expert evidence to make sense of the accounts involved in a lawsuit against the company.
Justice Ben Taylor denied the motion for summary judgment Wednesday in Charlottetown where Summerside-based Testori Americas supplier Comp Tech Europe asked him to award the company at least $83,000.
Comp Tech Europe, which is based in Italy, filed a statement of claim in July 2012 alleging Testori Americas owed the company for parts that were shipped to Canada but not paid for.
TMC Avion bought Testori Americas in 2011 and is involved in several legal battles, including with the company's former owners.
Lindo Lapegna, who is one of the former owners and a defendant in another case, was previously involved in the running of both companies at the same time.
During Wednesday's proceedings, Lynn Murray, who represented Comp Tech Europe, argued Testori Americas initially filed a blanket defence that denied every allegation against it.
The company later filed an amended statement of defence to address specific issues, but Murray said it was done too close to the already scheduled date for the motion hearing held Wednesday.
Murray said Taylor could award at least a partial judgment for about $83,000 along with costs, which she requested whether her motion was successful or not.
Testori Americas' lawyer Jonathan Coady argued against the summary judgment saying the company denied it owed Comp Tech Europe anything.
Coady said Testori Americas claimed a credit on its account for faulty parts and identified four cases where it didn't have a record of a purchase order to correspond with what Comp Tech Europe was billing it.
While he denied Testori Americas owed anything, Coady did acknowledge there would likely be costs associated with the motion because of how late the amended statement of defence was filed.
The lawyers for both sides spent much of Wednesday morning providing Taylor with dollar values for various transactions and amounts alleged to be owed.
In giving his reasons for denying the motion, Taylor said the state of the accounts was confusing enough that he couldn't use the filed affidavits to determine how much money, if any, was owed.
Taylor said he would need expert accounting evidence and dismissed the motion.
Although he didn't give a summary judgment, Taylor awarded Comp Tech Europe $7,000 in costs because he said it was unreasonable for Testori Americas to leave it to so late to file a proper defence.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
TMC Avion owns both Testori Americas and Wiebel Aerospace, which in turn owe the provincial government a combined $13.2 million, including interest, although they are behind in their payments.
Testori Americas also has three loans through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) worth $926,358, which are in good standing.
