THE Demerara Full Court on Thursday reserved its judgment in the challenge filed by Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo against the decision of High Court Judge, Madame Sandra Kurtzious, to grant a default judgement in a lawsuit filed by former Minister of Communities Annette Ferguson.
Following a Zoom hearing, Chief Justice Roxanne George and Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry instructed the parties involved to lay over outstanding submissions. Following a brief hearing, the Chief Justice announced that notices would be sent to the parties when the decision is ready.
In the Notice of Appeal filed on June 21 by his lawyer, Devindra Kissoon, Dr. Jagdeo is asking the court to have the judge’s decision set aside and reversed in its entirety.
The Vice-President is seeking an Order setting aside the default judgement issued against him on March 11, 2021.
He is also seeking an Order from the court allowing him leave to file a defence to the action within seven (7) days of the date of the granting of his application, and extending the relevant case management timelines to allow him to properly defend the claim.
Lastly, Dr. Jagdeo is asking the court to grant an Interim Order, staying the enforcement of the decision and default judgement, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal.
In his grounds for appeal, Dr. Jagdeo, who’s the appellant in the matter, is contending that Justice Kurtzious erred both in law and in fact by finding that he had no real prospect of defending the claim against Ferguson.
Another ground is that the learned judge not only erred, but also misdirected herself, in law, by entering a default judgement against the Vice-President, without considering all of the grounds of his defence, including, but not limited to, the defence of justification.
In the circumstances, Dr. Jagdeo is claiming that the judge erred in law by failing to appreciate the overriding objective of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) in ensuring justice between both parties.
Among other things, the appeal seeks to argue that Justice Kurtzious erred in law and in fact by attempting to assess the evidence, and conduct a mini-trial, as opposed to merely finding that the appellant had a real prospect of success, overlooking and failing to assess the facts averred in his pleadings which would be proved at trial.
On Wednesday, June 16, Justice Kurtzious affirmed her awarding of the default libel judgement against Dr. Jagdeo. The judge, at the time, was ruling on an application filed by Dr. Jagdeo to set aside the default judgement.
The judge said that Dr. Jagdeo presented no evidence to satisfy the court on why his application should be granted. However, she recanted the $20M previously granted, and was expected to assess a new quantum of damages with the parties involved, come July 28, 2021.
In March, Justice Kurtzious had rendered the default judgement in the libel proceedings filed by Ferguson, who’d served under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (AFC) administration.
The proceedings resulted from statements reportedly made by Dr. Jagdeo in December 2019, alleging that Ferguson had acquired significant wealth in only two years of being the housing minister, and used her public office to acquire several plots of land at Eccles, on the East Bank Demerara on which she was constructing a mansion.
That story was published in the Guyana Times newspapers, against which a libel proceeding is still ongoing.
Ferguson and her team of attorneys made the move to apply for default judgement after Dr. Jagdeo failed to file a defence within the prescribed time outlined in the CPR.
In addition to the $20M default judgement, Ferguson was also awarded costs in the sum of $75,000.
