Modernland Realty rejects commercial court decision
JAKARTA (JP): Property firm PT Modernland Realty rejected on Tuesday the commercial court's decision to declare it bankrupt, saying it would appeal to the Supreme Court to nullify the insolvency decision.
The property firm's lawyer, Amir Syamsudin of Amir Syamsudin and Partners, said that the court decision was hasty because the defendant and plaintiffs had already expressed willingness to renegotiate the debt.
"Actually we asked the panel of judges to give us seven days to renegotiate the debt payment but the judge turned it down," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. "The judge should have been wiser in his decision," he said.
"We will do our best to win the case in the Supreme Court," he said.
Amir said that both the debtor and the creditors had been working on debt payment reorganization after the creditors filed the bankruptcy petition late last month.
"Both the creditors and debtor have almost agreed to settle the debt payment after working on several issues," he said.
But in a surprise hearing on Monday, presiding judge Haryono approved the insolvency petition filed by Hussein Sani and Johan Subekti against property firm PT Modernland Realty for the latter's failure to pay for a Rp 94.13 million debt.
Bankruptcy litigation lawyers said that the property firm should not have been declared insolvent yet if it had proposed submitting a suspension of payment petition to the commercial court.
A court official said on Tuesday that the plaintiff had failed to abide by the legal procedures, such as proposing a suspension of payments to the commercial court, if it wanted to renegotiate its debts.
"It is just a pity that Modernland did not propose a suspension of payments to the court," the court official who asked for anonymity said.
The country's ambitious bankruptcy law, which came into effect on August 20, allows troubled Indonesian debtors to file for a suspension of payments in the commercial court. Under this procedure, the court issues a temporary suspension of payments order to allow the debtor and its creditors to work out a debt restructuring plan.
The debtor is then given up to 270 days to negotiate a restructuring plan. Failure to do so could result in the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings.
Amir admitted on Tuesday that his client did not propose a suspension of payment because his client could pay the Rp 94 million debt.
The bankruptcy law allows either party involved in the dispute to appeal to the Supreme Court. The appeal must be heard within 30 days.
But Amir said that the Jakarta Commercial Court's decision to declare Modernland bankrupt had already damaged its client's image.
"Though the debt is relatively small, the impact of the bankruptcy decision is bad for my client," he said. (aly)