The Commercial High Court recently issued an interim order against former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Dr. Chris Nonis et al, in a case filed by majority shareholders of Mackwoods Securities for alleged oppression, mismanagement and misappropriation of assets belonging to Mackwoods Group of Companies.

In a case recently filed the Commercial High Court of Colombo, the majority of the shareholders accounting for over 60% ownership of Mackwoods Securities(Pvt) Ltd - the holding Company of Mackwoods Ltd and its subsidiary and associate Companies - initiated legal action against Dr Chris Nonis, Chairman and certain other Directors, for alleged oppression of shareholders and mismanagement and misappropriation of Company assets belonging to the Mackwoods Group of Companies .

The 60.19 % majority shareholders of Mackwoods comprise, Mrs Mary Varma (Petitioner), Mrs Nirmali Samaratunga, and Mr F G N Mendis. They in addition have requisitioned an EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) to appoint three directors nominated by them to the board of Mackwoods.  

The Court has issued an interim order restraining Dr Chris Nonis and other Directors, namely - Shelendra Nonis Ranaweera, Lalith Fonseka and Lakshman Samarasinghe from appointing any directors and/or seeking to fill any vacancy on the board of Mackwoods, until the conclusion of the Extraordinary General Meeting requested by the majority shareholders and further issued an interim order restraining the same four directors from acting in contravention of the Articles of Association of the company.

The Petitioner revealed to courts that Dr Chris Nonis holds less than 29% of Mackwoods and his sister Shelendra Nonis Ranaweera and the other two directors do not own any shares of Mackwoods.

The petition was supported by M/s Romesh De Silva PC, Harsha Amarasekera PC and Attorneys-At-Law Kanchana Peiris and Shraepathy Attanayake, on the instructions of M/s D L &F De Sarams with Attorneys-At-Law Jivan Goonetilleke and Dasuni Wijayasiriwardene.