HIGH Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on Monday dismissed a $125M lawsuit filed by former Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, against current AG and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, for defamation of character earlier this year.

The High Court Judge dismissed the case on the grounds of non-compliance with the Civil Procedure Rules, failing to comply with the Case Management Conference timelines and wasting the court’s time. The AG was represented Monday by attorney, Patrice Henry. Attempts to contact Nandlall on Monday proved futile.

Meanwhile, two months ago, the said judge had denied an application filed in April by Nandlall which sought to prevent Williams from stating that he (Nandlall) would be charged for stealing several law books, property of the state. Justice Sewnarine- Beharry found, among other things, that the injunction had no merit. In her ruling she noted that Nandlall was charged for the very offence the AG said he would be charged with.

She noted too that the application for injunction over the “defamatory” statement was made some 11 days after it was allegedly made by the AG. According to her, that suggests that there was no urgency from Nandlall to have the matter addressed.
The Court also observed that Nandlall, in his application, failed to mention that he had approached the very court before on the same matter and was refused. He was represented by Attorney Manoj Narayan and was ordered to pay the standard $30,000, in September.

Nandlall has repeatedly confirmed that while he was AG, law books were purchased for him by the State, using taxpayers’ money. The missing books were bought from Lexis Nexis (U.K.), publishers of the Commonwealth Law Reports, and are said to be worth over $2.5M. However, after the PPP was unseated in 2015, Nandlall took possession of the books which were bought for him as AG, by the state. Since then Williams has committed to taking legal action against Nandlall.

Williams has accused Nandlall of allegedly stealing the books, since they were not in possession of the AG’s chambers, despite the fact that they were bought for the then AG with state funds. He maintains that the law books were purchased with state funds and were intended to be used by the state and its officials. He said any arrangement that does not conform to the established Public Service Rules or Regulations can be deemed a breach of the Fiscal Management Accountability Act (FMAA).

Added to the injunction, Nandlall claimed in excess of $25M for libel published on March 24, 2017, at a press conference, hosted at the National Communications Network Inc (NCN); damages of in excess of $25M for libel published in the Guyana Times newspaper on March 25, 2017; damages of in excess of $25M for slander published during an outreach programme in Berbice on March 26, 2017; and damages of in excess of $25M for libel published by Demerara Waves on March 27, 2017.