COVID protocols legal battle continues in court

Lawyers for the Government today wrapped up their closing arguments in defence of the COVID-19 directives now being challenged in four lawsuits.

Attorneys for the claimants Hall Gollop Q.C. and Neil Marshal are scheduled to respond to the defendants’ arguments next Monday. The two are representing Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn, shopkeeper Adrian Kellman of Kermit’s Bar and Benson Straker of Benson’s Minimart.

Kellman is challenging the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit’s closure of his Thornbury Hill, Christ Church bar while Straker is suing the Attorney General and Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith, alleging they acted unlawfully and beyond their legal power of authority in enforcing the Emergency Management (Amendment) Act, which governs the directives.

The two applications brought by Straker are for Benson’s Minimart versus the AG and the Commissioner; and Ricky Straker versus the Commissioner.

Senator Franklyn is challenging the manner in which the Emergency Management Act was imposed by Government to control the spread of COVID-19. He charges that Government has been enforcing directives that have not been approved by Parliament.

Today, Queen’s Counsel Leslie Haynes along with attorneys-at-law Gregory Nicholls and Kashawn Wood in their arguments on behalf of the Attorney General and Commissioner of Police, charged that the evidence of Benson Minimart Limited, Straker, Senator Franklyn and Kellman “do not provide the sufficiency of facts to discharge the burden of proof that rests on them.

“On the other hand we say the affidavits of the Attorney General, the Chief Medical Officer, Mr [Ronald] Chapman and Dr Philips provide overwhelming evidence explaining the reasons for not allowing minimarts to be opened. Thus we say the weight of evidence is plainly on the side of the defendants; we say that this is a period of public emergency.

“The legislation was not draconian; it allowed minimarts which required an exemption from the operation of the law, to apply to the Attorney General for an exemption,” the Queen’s Counsel told Madam Justice Jacqueline Corneilus in Supreme Court No. 12 this morning.