What is happening with Excellon in Mexico?
On August 10th, 2021, Excellon’s CEO Mr. Brendan Cahill issued an official statement regarding a lawsuit that San Pedro Resources, its subsidiary company in Mexico, lost.
In such statement, Mr. Cahill falsely claims that the lawsuit was lost as a result of corruption in the Mexican judicial system. In this sense, we will provide a brief description of the facts of the case and information of the trial in order to illustrate that corruption did not play a factor in this case and that the case was won rightfully.
It all started in 2003, when a man, the plaintiff in this case, who owns a Mining Concession signed a “Mining Exploitation Agreement” with the company San Pedro Resources S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Excellon Inc. (the “Company”).
In 2008, the Company did not comply on the agreed terms and stopped paying the plaintiff. The plaintiff then sent a letter addressed to the company in which he requested the payment of what was owed to him. At this point, the matter could have ended amicably by paying only a few thousand dollars and offering an apology. However, the Company’s officials refused to pay the amount of the debt and decided to take the matter to trial, which is why this has been going on for more than a decade.
After the Company’s refusal to pay, in 2011 the plaintiff gave notice to the Company of the termination of the agreement due to non-payment. Once again, the Company refused to pay and, on the contrary, the Company filed a lawsuit against the plaintiff requiring the nullity of the notice before the Mexican judge.
After 3 years of such trial, the Company lost the lawsuit and after an Amparo Trial (the highest and last jurisdiction in the Mexican legal System), the Mexican authority declared the notice of termination of the agreement to be valid. However, the Company continued to refuse to pay the total amount of the debt.[1]
After this, in 2014, the plaintiff decided to file a lawsuit against the Company. In such lawsuit, the plaintiff requested the payment of what was owed to him, as well as the damages. The Company was duly notified and answered the lawsuit.
In the evidence phase of the trail, the plaintiff offered 23 documentary evidence in addition to testimonials of the parties, witnesses, judicial inspection, and opinions of experts in mining, accounting and medicine, having submitted and disclosed out all the evidence offered correctly.
On the other hand, the Company only offered one document as evidence and a testimonial of the plaintiff, which was not even disclosed out because the Company's lawyers did not prepare such evidence in time. Given that only one document was all the evidence offered by the Company and that the plaintiff offered more evidence, it was impossible for the Company to win the trial under those conditions, which highlights solely the lack of care of the Company’s lawyers and has nothing to do with corruption.
The sentence was decreed in October 2015 and the plaintiff won partially. However, the parties filed an Appeal and later, an Amparo trial, which the plaintiff won and was awarded with damages. Once again, the company refused to pay any due amount to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff then proceeded before the judge requesting to redefine the amount to be paid for damages, and the Company responded by filling an appeal and later an Amparo trial against such damages, such appeals were lost by the Company.[2]
What could be settled with thousands of dollars 11 years later is a millionaire sentence.
The Company falsely complains of corruption and tries to smear the Mexican judicial system, but the facts show otherwise. The Mexican justice allowed both parties to promote all the appeals and Amparo trials possible within their legal rights. After years of trial and studying the facts of the case, the Mexican judicial system found that the plaintiff has the right and the reason to win the case.
The plaintiff has not received any payment from the defendant since the year 2011 and the possession of the mining remains in the Company. As a result, the plaintiff has not had any income for many years and is about to lose his house in a foreclosure. In this sense, it is impossible and absurd to think that he would have the economic capacity to pretend to corrupt any Mexican authority during trail.
We all know that the Excellon has the financial capacity to pay for any technical and legal advice to take care of its interests, given that they hired two large Mexican law firms to aid them in this process. On the contrary, the plaintiff has had only one lawyer from the city of Torreon from the beginning, so it is ridiculous and incredible that Excellon claims to be victim of corruption when the other party can barely afford legal advice.
The truth is that from the beginning the Company has been arrogant and has sought to intimidate the plaintiff, without paying him any due amount of money for more than 10 years. They have refused to negotiate with him and are trying not to pay a single peso to the plaintiff, which is why it is painful that they now call the sentence as a product of corruption of the judicial system of Mexico.
It is time that Excellon Resources Company and its CEO Mr. Brendan Cahill, behave with honor and settle this matter, instead of trying to smear the Mexican judicial system that has at all times recognized all of their rights to defend themselves.
I assure you that not all of us in Mexico are corrupt and, moreover, we are working on a daily basis to eradicate these practices and achieve justice for those who need it. This is a case of injustice for a poor innocent man. It could even be read as a case where a foreign company refuses to recognize the authority of the countries where they do business and abuse their power to take advantage of poor people. It could even suggest that the Company rather blame their mistakes in corruption than pay what is rightfully due to innocent people, which could even smear the image of how Excellon does business in Mexico, which none of us want.
Mexico and Canada have been working side by side in business, especially in the mining sector, reaching solutions for both parties that align at all times with international law. This case should not have an impact in such relationship, and on the contrary, it should prove that Canadian companies can do business in Mexico and respect its laws and jurisdiction while doing so.
We are still waiting for justice…
[1] They had only paid only a small part before a judge.
[2] The Amparo trial could have been reviewed; however, their lawyers did file it within the given period of time, and they lost that opportunity.