EDWARD Seaga was last night attempting to contain, among his JLP colleagues, the potential fall-out from the liquidation of his failed hotel management company as his lawyers insisted that enough cash will be mustered from the winding up of another firm owned by the Opposition leader to meet creditor obligations.

Seaga called an emergency meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party’s Standing Committee to explain events after it emerged on Thursday that Town & Country Resorts, the firm that he had put up for liquidation last August, has no assets and owed creditors more than $443 million.

Seaga went straight to meet with the Standing Committee – the JLP’s third highest decision-making body – on his arrival at the Belmont Road headquarters of his party, while one of his deputies, Derrick Smith, last night declined to speak about the hastily-called meeting. “I was invited here by the leader, like anybody else,” Smith told the Observer.

However, Standing Committee members who called themselves members of the reformist wing, speculated that the party leader was seeking a vote of confidence in light of the indebtedness of his company, Town & Country Resorts.

Members of the group, while saying that they were not prepared to give the party leader any vote of confidence, said they would not put any pressure on him to resign.

Approximately 55 per cent of Town & Country Resorts’ debt is owed to the government, of which nearly two-thirds – $155.23 million – is for general consumption tax (GCT) liabilities – a case which Seaga fought all the way to the Privy Council.

It was the loss of that case that caused Seaga to put Town & Country as well as its parent, Premium Investments, into voluntary liquidation to raise the cash to cover the debts.

Last night Abe Dabdoub, one of Seaga’s lawyers, argued that the final debt of Town & Country, would be substantially lower than the $443 million and was confident that the assets held by Premium would cover its own liabilities, as well as those of its sister company.

“…I am advised by the liquidator that preparation for the sale of the property (The Enchanted Garden Hotel in Ocho Rios) are on target and that it should realise sufficient funds to satisfy such indebtedness of Town & County Resorts Ltd, as agreed by the liquidator and creditors,” Dabdoub said in a statement. It is estimated that Enchanted Gardens has up to US$7 million in debts.

He said that actual requirement to clear Town & Country’s liabilities was likely to be substantially below the $443 million outlined in a statutory report filed with the authorities this week.

The listed liabilities, Dabdoub pointed out, included “loans from Premium Investments, a reserve for legal claim otherwise covered by insurance and alleged debts for which the alleged debtors have failed to prove their claims to the satisfaction of the liquidator”.

Town & Country’s statement of affairs shows a $94.3 million to Premium Investments, plus a contingent liability of $34.72 million in favour of Alexandra Rickman, in a case being handled on her behalf by the law firm Rattray, Patterson Rattray, of which Prime Minister P J Patterson is a founder and partner on-leave.

In addition to this $129 million, for which Dabdoub indicated that Premium would be clear of obligation, there is approximately another $12.5-million debt that the liquidator, Sophia Beckford, deemed to be unconfirmed.

The suggestion, therefore, is that Premium would be free of the obligation for a total of $141.5 million, which leaves about $301.5 million to clear.

When Seaga announced last August his intention to liquidate Premium, he projected that it would, after the settlement of its own obligations, have about $200 million free and clear to cover Town & Country’s liabilities.

But there was no indication last night when Premium’s liquidation would be filed.