For deliberately and constantly breaching the court’s orders, attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman believes the directors of JADA Construction should be held in contempt of court and imprisoned.
Contending that no one was above the law, Hanuman said he saw no reason why the directors should not be punished, especially considering that persons had been imprisoned for lesser court breaches.
Fed up and frustrated with the continued late night work by JADA Construction, Hanuman on behalf of residents of Dover, Christ Church, filed a High Court injunction in October to prevent any work being done later than 6 p.m.
Back on November 4, Justice Shona Griffith issued an order that JADA would be allowed to work on the Sandals at Dover, Christ Church and the nearby Oceans Two sites between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.
No work was to be conducted on Sundays or bank holidays.
However, in an interview with Barbados TODAY, Hanuman said since that order was given by the court, JADA had breached it on at least 20 occasions.
He said the latest was Sunday where workers from the construction company were seen carrying out work on the Sandals project.
“There have been so many breaches and the thing that annoys me is the average individual, if they breach a court order they are sent to prison. I have had a client sent to prison for failing to pay maintenance,” Hanuman said.
He said he also had a client in his 70s who was facing imprisonment for failing to follow a court order 20 years ago.
“So if an old-aged pensioner for breaching a court order can be sent to prison surely these people; the directors and the senior management, who blatantly and knowingly breach the order, they should be subject to the law like everybody else. Everybody must be equal before the law,” Hanuman maintained.
The veteran attorney-at-law and Dover resident revealed that he had applied to the court last Friday for a date and hoped the matter could be heard this week.
He said while he did not want anyone to be imprisoned, he had continuously warned JADA about breaching the court’s orders.
Hanuman said he had employed the services of a professional photographer and had evidence.
“They’ve breached their undertaking on numerous occasions but I don’t want to send anybody to prison. I’ve spoken to their lawyer and I warned him that if it continued I would have no choice but to apply to the court for a committal order for contempt of court, so I didn’t just do it at the first breach. This is many, many breaches later,” Hanuman pointed out.
“This is not a decision I have taken lightly. It is a last resort action…but the breaches have intensified coming up to Christmas. I believe they are trying to rush and finish their projects by certain dates so they are pouring cement until 9:30 at night, not just here at the Sandals site but also at the Oceans Two site and for the last two Sundays the Sandals site has been working and the previous Sunday the Oceans Two site was working.
“Not only are they doing that but at night they are moving really heavy site equipment like bulldozers and so on at midnight and even at 4 a.m. they are disturbing the neighbourhood,” he further added.
This story was updated to remove incorrect comments attributed to Site Manager Rene Dulieu who is a senior manager of the Jada group.
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
