-NBS granted three-month stay to decide on CCJ appeal

THOUGH upholding the High Court ruling, the Court of Appeal on Friday slashed the $59 million judgement that the New Building Society (NBS) was ordered to pay former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Maurice Arjoon, to $18.8 million.

In 2017, High Court Judge, Brassington Reynolds, found that Arjoon was wrongfully dismissed and was owed his pension benefits

Arjoon had sued the financial institution back in 2011 for dismissing him wrongfully in 2007. He was fired after being accused of conspiring with two others to defraud NBS of $69M – a case which went to trial and was subsequently dismissed. The money reportedly belonged to Bibi Khan.

Justice Reynolds ruled in favour of and granted a $79 million award to Arjoon.

NBS had attempted to stay that ruling. However, after another court challenge, Justice Rishi Persaud ordered that only $59 million of the original judgement be paid to Arjoon.

NBS took a decision to pay Arjoon through his lawyers and representatives, the $59 million after they secured an order to levy on the bank’s properties.

However, it later blocked the payment and renewed its arguments that the dismissed manager was fully responsible for his termination.

The financial institution filed a case in the Appeal Court to overturn Justice Reynolds’ ruling.

NBS, through its attorney Pauline Chase had contended that Arjoon had seriously misconducted himself which warranted his dismissal and as such, was not entitled to severance pay by virtue of his status and contract and according to the Termination of Employment and Severance Act.

Arjoon’s attorney, Edward Luckhoo S.C., argued that his client was wrongfully dismissed and is therefore entitled to the full $79 million in damages.

Luckhoo also contended that no evidence had been presented by the financial institution to substantiate that Arjoon had committed any misconduct and should not have been dismissed.

The case was heard by the Full Bench of the Court of Appeal comprising acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Justice Franklyn Holder and Justice Persaud.

The chancellor, while delivering the unanimous judgement said that NBS failed to show or lead evidence to show that Arjoon misconducted himself.

“The absence of any such evidence means there was no serious misconduct to justify summary dismissal…” she said.

According to the chancellor, NBS failed to show that Arjoon was responsible for the transfer of Khan’s money.

“Instead, what has been shown is that Arjoon alone did not deal with the transaction and there appears to be other clerks and other operatives who were collectively involved in the transaction,” she added.

The chancellor said that, as Justice Reynolds had rightly found, there is no place for “Peter to pay for Paul or Paul to pay for all” in the circumstances.

Finally, the Court of Appeal only allowed NBS’s appeal on the issue of Arjoon’s pension entitlement, but dismissed the other grounds of appeal.

The court reduced Arjoon’s pension benefits from $59,033,281 to $18, 817,432. This sum will be subjected to any indebtedness to NBS.

Additionally, the financial institution was ordered to pay Arjoon $800,000 in court costs.

Chase asked the court to grant a stay of its ruling as she seeks further instructions from her client as to whether she should move to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to file a further challenge.

The court granted her a three-month stay of execution.