The Full Court this afternoon refused to grant a stay of a contempt order by Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry for Finance Minister Winston Jordan to be imprisoned for 21 days if he fails to honour a court judgment to pay US$2.2M to Dipcon engineering by Monday, July 8, 2019. During a hearing today, the court deemed the application for a stay, filed by Attorney General Basil Williams, as having no merit.
Justices Simone Morris Ramlall and Diane Insanally ruled on the application. Williams gave oral notice of his intention to appeal at the Court of Appeal. Minister Jordan was also present in court for the proceedings.
About two weeks ago, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry issued the order against Minister Jordan for his failure to pay monies to the company. Justice Sewnarine-Beharry had considered that Justice Gino Persaud handed down a judgment in 2015 for Dipcon to recover the monies from the State and government over infrastructural works under the previous government.
Being dissatisfied with Justice Persaud’s judgment, Williams filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal, but same was filed six months late with regards to rules governing civil matters in the High Court. The Court of Appeal dismissed the belated appeal. Redress was then sought at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). However, this court also dismissed the appeal.
At the regional court, Williams had contended that there were good reasons to support why the appeal was filed late. For one, the Attorney General told the CCJ that the matter was handled by private lawyers who only informed the Attorney General Chamber’s of Justice Persaud’s ruling months after it was delivered.
Notwithstanding this, the CCJ dismissed the appeal on the ground that it was filed out of time, which was unacceptable.
