President David Granger has issued a Grant of Respite to the judgment levied on the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, allowing the official to avert jail time.
Three days ago, the Full Court refused to grant a stay of a contempt order by Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry for Minister Jordan to be imprisoned for 21 days if he fails to honour a court judgment to pay US$2.2M to Dipcon Engineering by today, Monday, July 8, 2019.
President Granger, using his executive powers vested in him under article 188(1)(b) of the Constitution, had the punishment blocked.
”I hereby grant to Winston Jordan, in his personal capacity and as the Honourable Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament, a respite of the execution of the punishment imposed on him until all appeals and remedies available to him and the State have been exhausted,” the president outlined in the document.
The court had deemed the application for a stay, filed by Attorney General Basil Williams, as having no merit.
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.
