High Court throws out libel case against Minister Broomes, KN

Jan 05, 2020 News

A High Court Judge threw out a case filed against former President of the Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), Simona Broomes, and Kaieteur News by miner Compton Mendonza.
The plaintiff had filed the case against Kaieteur News after an article published by GWMO pointed to an incident in which he (Mendonza) was involved in a dispute with a female over a claim at Imbaimadai.
Mendonza had sued Broomes and Kaieteur News over the publication of a statement in which she said that he had “big connections” in the mining sector and was using his influence to take over a female miner’s claim.
In the case, Mendonza was the sole witness.
Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes who represented Minister Broomes and Kaieteur News explained that when cross examined Mendonza admitted he went to the Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the case was eventually resolved in his favour.
Last week, Justice Sandra Kurtzious awarded $40,000 costs against him. In the lawsuit filed by Mendonza, he had essentially denied Broomes’s statement that he was working on property belonging to Amanda Peters, a female miner.
In her comments, Broomes had suggested that the female miner was at a disadvantage in the dispute over the mining property.
Broomes had contended that no action was taken after Peters’s complaint reached the level of the Mines Officer.
She reported that the officer told the woman that nothing could have been done because she had no documents on her to prove that she is indeed the owner.
Broomes contended that this was the case even though Mendonza had no documents to prove that he owned the property also. She claimed that an eventual intervention by the GWMO had resulted in some action.
“I went to the Manager of GGMC and he sent in another Mines Officer with me and Ms. Peters…The Mines Officer decided to issue a “Cease Work Order.”
According to Broomes, the Officer returned to the landing and served Mendonza with the order.
“But Mendonza continued work. He did not stop.”
Broomes had therefore insinuated that Mendonza was able to be disrespectful to the Mines Officer because “he knows big ones and he got politicians as associates and friends, so he is all powerful…”

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