…judge imposes substantial costs

DEFECTS in the libel case brought against the Attorney General, Basil Williams, and the Guyana National Newspapers Ltd (GNNL) by former Deputy Solicitor General, Prithima Kissoon, have resulted in further delays.

In December 2017, Kissoon sued Williams and GNNL for $25M for libel over what she considered false and malicious reports published in the Guyana Chronicle. However, Kissoon’s Attorney, Nigel Hughes, erred when he failed to name Williams as a defendant in his official capacity as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs in the legal proceedings filed.

Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Barbadian Queen’s Counsel Ralph Thorne, who is representing the attorney general, said Kissoon and her attorneys have been engaged in maladministration.
The Queen’s Counsel told the Guyana Chronicle that when he appeared before Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln in the High Court on Tuesday for the pre-trial, he made an application to strike out the claim filed by Kissoon on the basis that she sued the attorney general in his personal capacity.

“We were asking the court to invalidate the proceedings that had been filed on the basis that they did not give the Office of the Attorney General the opportunity to properly defend itself,” Thorne told this newspaper. Upon realising that the application was defective, Justice Corbin-Lincoln offered guidance to Kissoon and team.

“The court offered them the opportunity to correct the defective nature of the proceedings and they accepted that guidance from the court and they undertook to file amended proceedings,” the Barbadian Queen’s Counsel explained.

He said as a result of the defective application, Kissoon is now expected to file “fresh proceedings,” and the defendants in the matter – the Attorney General and GNNL, will have the opportunity to respond to the corrected proceedings.

“There will be the usual exchange of documents,” he said, while adding that, “we are going over what we did before because what was done was incorrectly done. So it is as if we are starting over.”

According to Thorne, the maladministration on the part of Kissoon and her legal team is not only embarrassing, but also frustrating. He said it would appear that the claimant’s legal team was ill prepared.

“What it tells me is that the other side came to this litigation with a certain confused mind because they sued him (Williams) in his personal capacity, yet they were trying to convince the court that they were suing him in both capacities but the documents did not reflect that,” Thorne told this newspaper. He reiterated that the comments made by Williams were made while he sat in his official capacity as Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister.

It was noted by Thorne that failure to address Williams in his official capacity deprived him of an opportunity to properly reply. Thorne also contended that the maladministration has resulted in further delays which would result in additional costs for the attorney general.

“It adds to the time, and it certainly adds to the expense because if this had not occurred, I would have expected that this matter would have come on for trial certainly before August but as a result of the defective nature of the claimant’s proceedings, it means that the judge has had to extend the trial date to late October. So this has slowed down the proceedings, and as you know, we always say that justice delayed is justice denied,” Thorne told this newspaper.

NO SHOW
He said to further compound the situation, Kissoon’s legal team has been a no-show, and when a lawyer appeared on her behalf, it was not Hughes, whose name is affixed on the legal documents. “What is particularly disturbing to me is that on the last occasion when we went to court, the other side did not even turn up and I seized the opportunity to tell the judge that it was discourteous and it was respectful for a matter to be called up in court; you are the claimant, you are the person suing and you do not show the court the common courtesy nor respect of actually presenting yourself in court, and that was particularly frustrating,” Thorne detailed.

He further added that last December, the claimant appeared alone and subsequently a different lawyer appeared. You had notice and you chose not to be present. According to Thorne, the court penalised Kissoon in cost on occasions – the first, when she failed to appear, and the second time, when they filed a defective application.

In the legal documents filed, Hughes stated that Guyana Chronicle on January 19, 2017, January 30, 2017 and February 4, 2017, published false reports on Kissoon. In this libel case, GNNL is being represented by Attorney-at-law Sharon Small.