Colombian theft of monies paid for website developement

[Mrmom77]

Jurisdiction

South America

My sister in law lives in Bogota Colombia. She paid 10m pesos for website developement from a company in colombia. Said company is a subsidiary of a larger company in switzerland (itecor). the company in Colombia has said blatantly that they do not have the website due to a dispute with the freelance developer (also in Colombia). The developer has not been paid by the company and is owed 12mPesos so refuses to release the website to the company. The company has then in turn refused to produce the website or refund the money. Should we go after the company in colombia (which could take upwards of 7-10 years or can we file a complaint in Swiss courts against the parent company?

 

[txls]

You will need to inquire of someone in either Columbia and/or Switzerland.

 

[army judge]

My sister in law lives in Bogota Colombia. She paid 10m pesos for website developement from a company in colombia. Said company is a subsidiary of a larger company in switzerland (itecor). the company in Colombia has said blatantly that they do not have the website due to a dispute with the freelance developer (also in Colombia). The developer has not been paid by the company and is owed 12mPesos so refuses to release the website to the company. The company has then in turn refused to produce the website or refund the money. Should we go after the company in colombia (which could take upwards of 7-10 years or can we file a complaint in Swiss courts against the parent company?

Logic is telling me if you can sue in Switzerland, that's the way to go.
How much in US Dollars is 10,000,000 of your pesos?
Traveling back and forth across the Atlantic is going to cost you a tidy sum.

 

[zddoodah]

Should we go after the company in colombia (which could take upwards of 7-10 years or can we file a complaint in Swiss courts against the parent company?

We? This doesn't appear to have anything to do with you.

Your sister, a resident of Columbia, entered into a contract with a company in Columbia, which apparently has breached the contract. Nothing about that suggests she has any basis to sue anywhere other than in Columbia.

That the Columbian company is a subsidiary of a Swiss company is completely irrelevant since your sister's contract was with the Columbian company and not its Swiss parent entity.

Moreover, suing in Switzerland over 10M Columbian pesos (the equivalent of less than USD $3,500) would be phenomenally impractical. A round trip flight from Bogota to Geneva plus three or four nights at a hotel would cost at least half the amount of the claim and would not be recoverable. Even if she only had to make that trip once, it wouldn't be worth it. Moreover, any documents would need to be translated into French, German or Italian (and maybe more than one of them), and interpreters would be needed (unless your sister happens to speak one of the official languages of Switzerland). Those things also cost lots of money that likely wouldn't be recoverable.

That the Columbian court system might suck is irrelevant. That's the risk that your sister took by conducting business in such a country.