The year 2022 was one of landmark judicial cases.
It started with the constitutional challenge to the snap general election called by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, two years before it was constitutionally due. The action brought by attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman on behalf of Philip Catlyn, challenged Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s decision to call the election while the COVID-19 pandemic was raging.
The applicant contended that the rights of Barbadians under Section 6 of the Representation of the People Act were being trampled and that President Dame Sandra Mason acted unreasonably when she accepted Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s request for an election, in circumstances where thousands of people could be disenfranchised.
The action failed. Madam Justice Cicely Chase declared the court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter and that the claims against Dame Sandra raised a controversy pursuant to the Election Offences and Controversies Act Cap 3.
According to the Act, such issues can only be heard by a special election court comprising three judges.
Attorney-at-law Ernest Jackman
Justice Chase ruled: “The action has been incorrectly filed in the High Court – that is the opinion of this court –, it being a full-blown controversy as to whether the COVID-19 patients who are in isolation should be able to vote in a normal manner. . .
“The application for judicial review, therefore, cannot be entertained nor determined. The court has no jurisdiction to hear this matter and, accordingly, no order for injunctive relief in any application can be granted by this court.”
The dismissal of the application for an injunction to postpone the election cleared the way for Barbadians to go to the polls. The Mottley-led Barbados Labour Party delivered another ‘red-wash’ to its political opponents, capturing all 30 seats.
Attorney-at-law Norman Lynch
Immediately on the heels of that victory came another legal challenge for the newly-elected Government. This time it stemmed from the Mottley administration’s failure to name a full slate of senators for the Upper House.
It was brought by former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite K.C. in his capacity as a civilian through his attorneys Garth Patterson, Michelle Russell and Rico Yearwood.
The suit alleged that the Senate, which at the time only comprised 18 senators, was not properly constituted and therefore by extension neither was Parliament.
That legal challenge also failed.
Attorneys-at-law Garth Patterson K.C. and Adriel Brathwaite K.C.
Justice Chase who also heard that constitutional motion ruled that the Senate was free to meet with the 11 Senators nominated by Prime Minister Mia Mottley and seven others appointed at the discretion of President Dame Sandra Mason.
The High Court judge also held that President Mason was well within her right to convene Parliament under the circumstances.
However the issue is far from over as Brathwaite and Patterson have signalled their intentions to take the matter to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The substantive case, however, is still to be heard before Justice Chase.
Historic judgment
In another civil case engaging the courts’ attention, Madam Justice Michelle Weekes presided in a matter which resulted in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) community in Barbados recording its biggest victory to date with the decision to strike down laws which criminalise consensual sexual relations between partners of the same sex.
In the historic judgment in the case brought by Rene Holder-McClean Ramirez and Raven Gill Justice Weekes struck down sections of the Sexual Offences Act, including those related to buggery and serious indecency, declaring void, Sections 9 and 12, Chapter 154, of the Sexual Offences Act.
“This is a huge win for the community and for Barbados,” said Ramirez in a short statement. “This has been years of work and that work still continues.”
In a response to the Judge’s ruling, Attorney General Dale Marshall said Government would consider all options after Justice Weekes’ written judgment is made available in January 2023. He admitted though, that he was not surprised by the decision.
The ruling saw Barbados becoming the third Caribbean country this year to repeal such legislation, following in the footsteps of Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis.
Attorney-at-law Faye Finnisterre and members of the Mottley family.
Attorneys jailed for theft
During this year two lawyers were convicted for theft after a jury trial.
Attorney-at-law Norman Leroy Lynch was found guilty in May of stealing $50 000 belonging to the estate of Arthur O’Neal Thomas between August 18, 2005 and December 21, 2008.
He was found guilty of stealing $407 634, the proceeds of a FirstCaribbean International Bank cheque made payable to Leroy Lynch and belonging to Thomas’ estate. The offence occurred between June 22, 2007 and December 21, 2008. He was also guilty of money laundering in the disposal of $457 634, being the proceeds of crime, also between June 22, 2007 and December 21, 2008. He is still awaiting sentencing.
Attorney Ernest Jackman also went on trial in May and was found guilty of stealing $678 414.75 from HEJ Limited between June 23, 2006 and March 5, 2007, as well as engaging in money laundering by disposing of the sum between June 23, 2006 and October 18, 2011.
In November Madam Justice Pamela Beckles sentenced him to seven years in prison on theft and money laundering charges.
Millions in damages awarded
The High Court ordered the state to compensate two former murder accused for breach of their constitutional rights.
In July Madam Justice Shona Griffith ordered former murder accused Pedro Deroy Ellis be paid $75 000 for unlawfully detaining him for 18 days.
Ellis who was represented by King’s Counsel Larry Smith and Jamila Smith was awarded $50 000 in non-pecuniary damages and $25 000 in vindicatory damages, on the grounds that his constitutional rights had been breached when he was remanded to prison after being found not guilty of murder in the May 5, 2013 stabbing death of Antonio Harewood.
Two weeks later he secured yet another win before the courts. In August Justice Cecil McCarthy awarded him $60 000 in compensation again for breach of his constitutional rights to a fair hearing within a reasonable time as well as his right to bail.
In December King’s Counsel Smith would secure a third such victory in the law courts. This time it was on behalf of former murder accused Frank Errol Gibson who was awarded $1 719 500 in non-pecuniary loss and a $100 000 vindicatory award for breach of his constitutional rights to liberty, protection of the law and to have a fair trial within a reasonable time.
‘Gross Negligence’
Proceedings in the country’s Coroner’s court also garnered much public interest in 2022.
In December, six months after the inquest into the death of Warren Mottley began, Coroner Magistrate Graveney Bannister ruled that there had been gross negligence by two doctors who took care of him.
Mottley, the younger brother of Prime Minister Mia Mottley, died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) on June 29, 2021, a week after a routine colonoscopy at Surgical Solutions Inc (SSI) where Dr Sahle Griffith is a surgeon.
“Looking at the evidence and looking at the parties involved in the care of Warren Mottley, I find the conduct of Dr Griffith and Dr [Nigel] Farnum was so bad in all the circumstances to amount to a criminal act and omission and that it was grossly negligent and concerned in the cause of his death,” the Coroner said.
“There was a breach of duty which gave rise to an obvious and serious risk of death. The conduct was egregious . . .”
Guilty as charged!
In one of the most high-profile murder cases in the High Court during 2022, Hakeem Roberto Stuart was in November, found guilty of the brazen, daylight killing of Damian Trotman in Sheraton Mall in 2019.
Stuart, 24, of Shelbourne Gap, St Lawrence, Christ Church, had denied murdering Trotman on March 21, 2019.
In a trial that lasted almost a month and which saw over 50 witnesses giving evidence, a 12-member jury took just over three and a half hours of deliberation to find Stuart guilty as charged.
