The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ largest retail shopping mall is demanding $358,532 from the estate of the late Galleria Cinemas’ chief, and ex-deputy DNA leader, to settle an unpaid debt dating from before COVID-19 struck.

The Mall at Marathon, according to legal documents obtained by Tribune Business, is alleging that Chris Mortimer defaulted on repayments due under a $409,674 loan agreement in September 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak and all his cinema and restaurant businesses were closed due to lockdowns and other health-related restrictions.

The mall, in its standard claim, says the monthly repayments never resumed prior to Mr Mortimer’s passing on June 8, 2023, at the age of 2023. As a result, it is now seeking to recover the outstanding debt from the former Galleria, Outback Steakhouse and Bennigan’s restaurant principal’s estate.

Revealing that the debt was secured by a promissory note agreement, signed and executed by both parties, the Mall at Marathon alleged: “The salient terms of the promissory note are as follows. Mr Mortimer, for value received, unconditionally promised to pay the claimant [the Mall] upon demand the sum of $409,674 together with interest thereon at a rate of Prime plus 2 percent annually.”

It also claims he agreed to repay the loan via monthly repayments of $8,209, which would “be applied initially to interest” and then the principal balance, plus cover legal costs and expenses if the Mall at Marathon was forced to resort to the Supreme Court to recover its monies.

“In breach of the promissory note, Mr Mortimer failed to make [repayments] from September 2020 and, as at the date of issuance of these proceedings, the sum of $358,532 remains due and owing,” the Mall at Marathon alleged in a claim that was first filed almost a year ago on March 22, 2024.

“Despite demand for payment by letters dated December 14, 2021; February 7, 2022; and October 12, 2022, the defendant [Mr Mortimer and now his estate] has failed to pay the amounts outstanding. As a result of the defendant’s breach of the promissory note, the claimant has suffered loss and damage.” The legal claim as signed by one of the Mall at Marathon’s directors, Jerome Pyfrom.

In addition to recovering its loan principal, the Mall at Marathon is also seeking interest on this sum at the same rate charged to Mr Mortimer - Bahamian Prime plus 2 percent - until a judgment is rendered, and further interest until it receives “payment in full”.

No explanation or reason was given for granting the loan in the legal documents seen by this newspaper. Mr Mortimer and his businesses would have been Mall at Marathon tenants, but Galleria Cinemas ceased operating and shut down in around March/April 2022 as The Bahamas and world economy started to emerge from COVID-19 restrictions.

However, the Mall at Marathon has made little progress in advancing its claim. Teresa Roberts, its assistant general manager, in a September 16, 2024, affidavit attributed this to the fact that the late Mr Mortimer’s estate “has not been lodged for probate in the Supreme Court of The Bahamas.

“Therefore, no personal representative has been appointed to lawfully act on behalf the estate,” she alleged. “On September 19, 2023, the Mall filed a caveat against the estate in order to direct the personal representative, once named or appointed, to the Mall’s counsel so that arrangements may be made for the settlement of the outstanding debt from the estate’s assets.

“The Mall then commenced these proceedings against the estate on 22 March, 2024, in anticipation of the estate being imminently lodged for probate thereby appointing a personal representative. On 15 July, 2024, the Mall filed another caveat against the estate on the basis that the earlier one had already expired....

“I am advised by counsel for the Mall, and I verily believe, that until the court has appointed a party to represent the estate, the Mall is unable to take any step in these proceedings other than making application to have such person appointed to represent the estate.’

The Supreme Court, on November 14, 2024, ordered that Mr Mortimer’s wife, Monika Badillo-Mortimer, be appointed as the person to represent her late husband’s estate in the legal battle with the Mall at Marathon. However, the latter has struggled to locate and effect service of the necessary legal documents on her, forcing it to this week do this via an advertisement published in the newspapers.

Mr Mortimer appears to have left numerous unfinished business affairs, alleged debts and legal wrangles in his wake following his passing. Apart from the Mall at Marathon’s claim, the Red Lobster franchise venture he launched as The Bahamas’ first-ever crowd-funded enterprise appears to have made little to no progress.

And Tribune Business reported last year how his companies failed to have Bank of The Bahamas’ demand for repayment of a $1.5m loan thrown out by the Supreme Court. 

Justice Neil Brathwaite, in an August 20, 2024, verdict dismissed their claims that the BISX-listed lender plunged the group into financial turmoil by “unlawfully withholding” as collateral a 50 percent ownership interest in Mr Mortimer’s restaurant business.

Bank of The Bahamas, which is more than 82 percent owned by the Government via the Public Treasury and National Insurance Board (NIB), had initiated legal action against Mr Mortimer and his companies to recover the $1.5m advance on November 20, 2020.

The loan, made to Galleria Cinemas before it closed its doors in April 2022, was guaranteed by Mr Mortimer personally and his other companies, Island Bloom Restaurant and Grand Bahama Theatres. Research showed Island Bloom is the holding entity for the Outback Steakhouse restaurant, which was also located at the Mall at Marathon.

However, prior to his passing and Galleria’s shutdown, the former DNA deputy leader and his companies invoked the Supreme Court’s then-rules to argue that Bank of The Bahamas’ action should be struck out on the grounds it “discloses no reasonable cause of action, is scandalous, frivolous or vexatious” and represented an abuse of process. Alternatively, they asked that the case continue by different means.

Mr Mortimer, in an affidavit setting out his case, confirmed he was the beneficial owner and president and director of all three companies. He added that Bank of The Bahamas was familiar with his practice of using the revenues, assets and earnings of all three companies to help support and repay loans taken out by one entity individually.

And, apart from the Bank of The Bahamas dispute, Mr Mortimer and his Casual Dining Restaurants Ltd were last month also ordered by the Supreme Court to pay the local Bennigan’s master franchisee $126,539 in unpaid royalty fees together with 4 percent interest covering a seven-year period to end-April 2020.

Sir Ian Winder, the chief justice, in his original verdict branded the restaurant venture as “an abject failure” and “a bust”. Mr Mortimer, in “unchallenged evidence”, said he personally carried the loss-making Bennigan’s restaurant from inception only because terminating so many employees could have damaged his political ambitions as then-DNA deputy leader.