Nomads to defend Nsejjere lawsuit

Mighty Wanderers Football Club plan to defend the K480 million (about $1.6m) lawsuit filed by American sportswear firm Nsejjere Sports and Casual Wear.

The club’s general secretary David Kanyenda confirmed the news in an interview on Tuesday.

“We agreed to defend ourselves and we have started [preparing] the defence. Once it is complete, you can access it through the court,” said Kanyenda.

Kanyenda did not give grounds of the defence but, Weekend Nation believes, some of the grounds are those contained in a letter Wanderers wrote to Nsejjere last June.

In the June 15 2012 letter, signed by Kanyenda, addressed to Nsejjere chairperson Isaac Nsejjere, Wanderers said they did not admit the existence of the alleged “Exclusive Supply Agreement”.

“I have been directed by the executive committee of Wanderers Football Club to address your good office that the club does not admit the existence of the alleged Exclusive Supplier Agreement. Further, it appears the agreement was executed, if at all between yourselves and an entity called MTL Wanderers Football Club, which is no longer a going concern to the best of our knowledge, information and belief,” Kanyenda wrote.

Wanderers also cited several reasons as foundation for pulling out of the contract. They also argued that Nsejjere breached the contract by engaging a third party.

“We categorically advise that we have repudiated the agreement. We shall not accept your subsequent or performance of your obligations if made or attempted to be made,” the club said.

Court documents filed by Nsejjere legal representative Moses Nkhono of Lincoln, Edwards and Company at the Lilongwe High Court claimed that Wanderers breached an exclusive written agreement in or around May, when they failed or ignored to use Nsejjere products and instead, they started using Puma products without informing Nsejjere as per the contract which the two parties signed on April 2 2010.

Nkhono said it was an express term of the agreement that Wanderers FC would never use any other competitor’s products, which may be a substitute to the products supplied by Nsejjere in seven years during which the exclusive supply agreement between the two parties would have to subsist.

“It was further an express term of the agreement that should any competitor approach Wanderers for any agreement that would run between the parties herein, Wanderers were to notify Nsejjere, a thing which they did not do,” explained Nkhono.

The documents reveal that despite being aware of the contractual obligation to Nsejjere, Wanderers went ahead to use Puma products who are Nsejjere’s competitors.