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Complaint filed against Attorney for alleged failure to properly prosecute case in High Court
Kaieteur News – A complaint has been filed at the Legal Practitioner Committee against Attorney-at-law Rajendra Poonai SC over his alleged failure to properly deliver competent services in a Statement of Claim (SOC) matter filed in the civil jurisdiction of the High Court.
According to documents seen by this newspaper, the complainant, Lloyd Soobrian, the owner of the Caribbean Telecommunication Limited, a company registered under the Company Act of Guyana, is claiming that he paid Poonai USD $3000 to represent the case but he failed to do so in a manner that any reasonable Attorney would.
Attorney-at-Law Rajendra Poonai, SC.
In the document, Soobrian revealed that Poonai had filed a civil suit in the High Court, on behalf of Caribbean Telecommunication Limited, for a Breach of Contract and Restraint of Trade, committed against the company by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT).
Soobrian claims that Poonai presented himself as a Lawyer competent to represent the company in the case. However, the man noted that Poonai failed to meet the minimum standard required for such a claim and when that was pointed by the court he said another Lawyer was doing part of the case. It was nevertheless pointed out to him that he was the only Lawyer on record.
Additionally he failed to file a reply to the defence in the case filed by the defendants in the matter. He also failed to correct the defect in the pleading even though he was granted an opportunity to do so.
As a result, the Businessman has asked the Legal Practitioners Committee to suspend Mr. Poonai’s practice for three years and order him to compensate Soobrain to the tune of USD $200,000.
Poonai had filed an action on behalf of the company seeking among other things, a declaration that GTT’s unlawful interference resulted in the termination of their contract.
The lawsuit inter alia requested a declaration that the GTT unlawful actions constitute a restraint of trade, thereby preventing the claimant from carrying on their business. Poonai was hired to represent the company in a case which also sought a declaration that the defendant GTT be condemned to pay damages and cost for their unlawful acts.
In the matter, Caribbean Telecommunication Limited was seeking damages in excess of US $25 million.
However in her written decision on the matter made on May, 11 2018, Chief Justice Roxanne George- Wiltshire said on the case that there was no evidence presented to substantiate the claim made by the company that it suffered severe losses as a result of the decision taken by GTT.
The Chief Justice noted too that the claim in damages was statute barred pursuant to the limitation act and that she said there was no reply to refute the assertions and defence made by the Defendant.
Added to this, the Judge said no application was made to amend the defective claim. The Judge noted too that the Statement of Claim by Caribbean Telecommunication Limited was so ‘incurably bad,’ that it did not have viable claim.
The statement of case was obviously badly drafted that the Chief Justice struck out the case for having no merit. In her conclusion of the matter, she noted that “litigants in Guyana have grown accustomed to low cost awards hence they institute hopeless or vague claims such as this which waste the court’s valuable resources. While in ensuring access to justice, the court must give litigants a fair hearing, with the increasing volumes of cases, the court must safeguard it precious time to deal with cases which have some merit…”
She continued that “In the circumstances of this particular case, where it did appear that in addition to being an incurably bad case, the Claimant had instituted multiple actions in which the same or similar issues were raised so that Claimant was abusing the process of the court.” As such the Judge could not determine that the prescribed costs were to be awarded based on the value of the claimant claim which was $25 million in damages could not be awarded. The court has however directed the claimant to pay court cost in the sum of GYD $1.6 M.
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