Court says hotel owner must pay

Rutland Herald | May 13, 2017

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that a hotel proprietor failed to show he wasn’t the one who owed a former employee money.

The court upheld a Rutland civil court decision against Gurdeep Nagra, awarding Sashi Airi $57,787 for work Airi did for Nagra at the Red Roof Inn in Killington as well as two hotels in Brattleboro.

According to court records, Nagra argued Airi was employed not by him, but by various corporate entities in which Nagra was involved, and that Airi’s dispute was with those entities, not with him personally.

The trial court was unconvinced, and the Supreme Court ruled Nagra’s appeal had failed to present anything it could consider.

“(D)efendant did not order a transcript of the trial,” the decision read. “Instead, he indicated in his appeal that a transcript was not necessary.”

But the court said it was necessary. “Because we cannot review the evidence, the court’s factual findings, or its ultimate legal conclusion, defendant has waived the right to raise the issue on appeal,” the ruling said.

Court records state the two Brattleboro hotels were raided in 2007 as part of a federal investigation that resulted in Nagra being convicted on charges of fraud and harboring illegal immigrants.

Airi managed the hotels when the company went into receivership following the raids, records show.