All matters concerning an application for leave to go before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to challenge the Barbados Court of Appeal’s decision not to dismiss to disbar attorney-at-law Philip Nicholls will be heard on May 23.
Justices of the Court of Appeal Rajendra Narine, Francis Belle and Jefferson Cumberbatch gave that date for the case to be heard when it was called before them on Wednesday.
Last July, the Disciplinary Committee of the Barbados Bar Association put forward a recommendation for Nicholls, a former partner of Cottle Catford and Co., to be disbarred.
The committee cited professional misconduct on Nicholls’ part in a matter involving complaints from Elma Inniss and Joyce Bowen who are the executrices in the estate of the late John Connor. It was reported that the committee made the recommendation after Nicholls was unable to account for $860,000, the proceeds of the 2008 sale of a property formerly owned by John and Hazel Connor.
But the Court of Appeal dismissed the recommendation for disbarment in a 2-1 decision, with Justices of Appeal William Chandler and Kaye Goodridge ruling that a report submitted by the committee to have Nicholls dismissed was invalid, while Justice Narine who also sat on that panel dissented.
As a result, lawyers for the intended appellants in the matter, Barry Gale Q.C., Laura Harvey-Read and Ivan Alert, filed an application for leave to go to Barbados’ highest appellate court to challenge the Court of Appeal verdict.
The matter has been called before the panel a few times and on Thursday they said that such a “simple matter” was taking too long before the court.
