Minister of Finance Appeal of contempt order -AG withdraws summons at Appeal Court; files in full Court

Jul 04, 2019 News

The appeal filed on behalf of Finance Minister Winston Jordan has been withdrawn and a fresh summons filed at the Full Court. Jordan is represented by Attorney General in the matter while Dipcon Engineering is being represented by attorney at law, Timothy Jonas.
Jordan had appealed the decision of High Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry to issue a contempt order, to have him imprisoned for 21 days, if he fails to honour a judgment of US$2.2M, which is to be paid to Dipcon Engineering Services Limited by Saturday, July 6.
In a notice of appeal filed on Tuesday, Jordan asked the Court of Appeal to set aside and reverse the order of the Supreme Court Justice. According to court documents seen by this newspaper, the Finance Minister is challenging the authority of the Supreme Court to issue such an order against him.
He is appealing the entire decision on the grounds that the judge erred and misdirected herself in law when she exercised jurisdiction to hear the application of contempt against him in his private and personal capacity as Minister of Finance for alleged monies owed by the State and Government of Guyana.
The application noted that inter alia Justice Sewnarine-Beharry erred and misdirected herself in law when she failed to appreciate that contempt proceedings were coercive in nature and such order could not be made against Jordan in his private capacity, since no act was committed by the Minister in his private capacity.
The Minister is asking the Appeal Court to set aside and reverse the orders of Justice Sewnarine-Beharry.
On Monday, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry ruled that Minister Jordan will be imprisoned if he fails to comply with the court’s order to pay out the outstanding monies by the specified date.
Justice Sewnarine-Beharry, in her ruling, pointed out that Minister Jordan had failed to comply with a judgment handed down sometime back by Justice Rishi Persaud, who ordered that the monies are to be paid to the company.
Justice Sewnarine-Beharry pointed out that the Minister had also failed to comply with a writ of Mandamus issued by the Chief Justice for the monies to be paid.
Furthermore, the judge also awarded cost to the engineering company in the sum of $3M, which she ordered be paid by the Minister.
According to the High Court Judge, there was no stay of proceedings granted on the two court orders, and the Minister, through his lawyers, has told the court that the National Assembly had approved monies to honour the judgment.
Back in 2015, Justice Persaud, who was then sitting at the High Court, granted judgment in favour of Dipcon.
The matter had stemmed from a multimillion-dollar contract dispute between the Trinidad-based company and the State. The ruling was originally handed down by the Caribbean Court of Justice, (CCJ).

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