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Ramsammy loses bid to set aside default libel judgment
Veteran Journalist, Enrico Woolford.
Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
Kaieteur News – Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln has refused an application by Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy to set aside a default judgment granted against him, and in favour of Veteran Journalist, Enrico Woolford.
Last February, Woolford filed a $150 million lawsuit against Ramsammy for libel. The journalist and former CEO of the National Communications Network won the case on default, as Ramsammy failed to file a defence or respond to the lawsuit in any shape or form.
However, Dr. Ramsammy belatedly filed an application seeking inter alia, an order that the default judgment be set aside. Dr. Ramsammy in the application told the court that he was never served any documents in relation to the case because the Court Marshall providing the service failed to reach him at his correct address.
Among other things, Dr. Ramsammy said that he was never evading the service of the court, but was rather busy in the fields conducting awareness of the COVID-19 immunization drive.
As such, Dr. Ramsammy asked the court to reconsider the default judgment granted against him for failing to file a defense. In August, Justice Corbin-Lincoln granted a default judgment to Woolford, in a $150 million libel suit he filed against Dr. Ramsammy.
On Friday, Justice Corbin ruled out Ramsammy’s request to set aside the judgment. The judge explained in her ruling that while it is clear the default judgment must be set aside for Ramsammy to plead his case, he provided no evidence to show that he has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim.
“In the absence of evidence that the defence has a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, the court would not be furthering the overriding objective by permitting a defence which has not shown the requisite prospect of success to proceed,” she said.
Woolford had filed a $150 million claim against the Guyana Times and Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, a columnist and former Minister of Health, for libel. According to court papers, Ramsammy was sued over an article printed in the Guyana Times in which he alleges that he (Woolford) colluded with the APNU+AFC to rig the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections. In his statement of claim, the veteran journalist outlined that on March 18, 2020, in a column titled: “Ramsammy’s Ruminations” the former Minister of Health defamed him. In the circumstances, Woolford was seeking damages in excess of $150 million from Dr. Ramsammy and Times Media Group Inc., publisher of the Guyana Times newspaper.
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