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Judge reaffirms judgment against Jagdeo in libel suit
Justice Sandra Kurtzious has reaffirmed her order to grant an award to former Junior Minister of Communities, Annette Ferguson, in the case where she sued Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, for libel.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Delivering her ruling via Zoom yesterday, Justice Kurtzious upheld the default judgment on the basis that Jagdeo failed to provide any substantiated material to support his reason for failing to file a defence to the defamation claims.
“There must be proper evidence before the court,” Kurtzious said.
The judge however, recalled that $20 million judgment and announced that a hearing will be held on July 28, 2021, with the parties to assess the quantum of the damages to be awarded.
In the interim, Jagdeo was ordered to pay $75,000 in court costs to Ferguson.
In a default judgment, the High Court Justice had ordered Jagdeo to pay $20 million in damages to the former Junior Minister of Communities for defamation.
Justice Kurtzious’ decision had followed Jagdeo’s failure to file a defence against the libel suit within the required time provided for under Part 12:01 (2) (d) of the Civil Procedure Rules of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
In response to the judgment, a statement issued by the Chambers of the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, disclosed that Jagdeo’s error of the non-filing of the defence was owing to some exceptional circumstances.
The statement explained that the defence was due at or about the 24th of February, 2020, about a week before the Regional and General Elections.
Former Junior Minister of Housing, Annette Ferguson.
Further, it noted the elections were then marred by a series of ensuing unforeseen and unprecedented actions, including, a series of litigation and a national recount and then even more litigation, until the results were finally declared on August 2, 2020.
“In March 2020, Guyana was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic which caused the Judiciary to close operations for a period, barring election related litigation. In consequence, the Supreme Court Registry was closed and lawyers were advised to close their offices.”
However, Ferguson’s lawyer, Lyndon Amsterdam, had noted during the onset of the pandemic, that Jagdeo’s then-lawyer, Nandlall, filed several matters and documents in the High Court in response to election-related matters by making use of the protocols set out in the Official Gazette.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 in Guyana did not inhibit his active participation in these matters,” Amsterdam noted. As such, he argued in favour of upholding the judgment against Jagdeo for failing to file the defence.
Additionally, the lawyer challenged claims by the lawyers over the non-filing of the defence, pointing out that the new protocols for the filing of matters and documents in the High Court’s Registry were published in the Official Gazette.
He said that members of the Bar were notified of same by the Guyana Bar Association; hence, there was no real excuse for failing to defend the case.
Last year before demitting office, Ferguson had filed a lawsuit against Jagdeo and the Guyana Times Newspaper, claiming in excess of $20M in damages for libel. The former Junior Minister’s case against Guyana Times is however, still pending in Court.
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