Full Court dismisses application for stay of GPSCCU special general meeting

Jan 29, 2024 News

Attorneys and representatives of GPSCUU following the hearing last year

Kaieteur News – Applications for Stay of Execution of Order directing the holding of Special General Meeting of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) and Leslyn Noble, Ruth Howard and Karen Vansluytman-Corbin was dismissed by the Full Court.

On Thursday last, Justices Nareshwar Harnanan and Damon Younge sitting in the Full Court, refused and dismissed Notices of Application filed by the GPSCCU and Noble, Howard and Vansluytman-Corbin seeking Stays of Execution against the Order granted by Justice Navindra Singh on the 15th day of December, 2023.

Justice Singh had ordered on December 15, 2023 inter alia that the Special General Meeting of the Credit Union be held on the 5th day of February, 2024. The Committee of Management had however, appealed the order and sought a stay of its execution.

The Full Court ruled on Thursday rejected the request for a stay and noted that the Appellants had failed to establish any special circumstances and or any irreparable prejudice they would suffer if the stays sought were not granted.

The Full Court fixed the hearings of the Appeals for the 18th day of April, 2024, and awarded costs against the Appellants in the sum of $150,000.00 each, to be paid to the Respondents by the 4th day of March, 2024.

The Appellants were represented by Mr. Boston, SC, and Mr. Adrian Smith.

The Respondents were represented by Mr. Roysdale A. Forde, SC, and Mr. Christopher Thompson.
This is the 2nd order of the court in less than two years. The first being September 30th, 2022 the meeting was to be called October 24, 2022 and the latter December 15th, 2023 February 5th, 2024.

Back in September, Justice Singh ruled that the Committee of Management must issue a new notice within 10 days of the date of the Order, scheduling a Special General Meeting (SGM) to be held no later than the 24th October, 2022.

This was not done and the notice was issued three days before the meeting and backdated.
Last March, Attorney-at-Law Forde, filed Contempt of Court proceedings against the Committee of Management of the GPSCCU.

The action was filed on behalf of Mehalai McAlmont, and others. They petitioned the court to declare that members of the GPSCCU Committee of Management (CoM) unlawfully failed to comply with the principal orders made by Justice Singh on September 30, 2022.

As such the lawyer had sought several orders including a declaration that the GPSCCU, Noble, Howard, and Vansluytman- Corbin, have unlawfully failed to comply with the principal orders made by Justice Navindra Singh on September 30, 2022.

As a result, Justice Singh stripped three officers of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) of their rights, duties and responsibilities within the Credit Union after they failed to show up in a contempt of court matter.

The judge had cited their barefaced disregard for the court, the judge ordered that Chairman of GPSCCU Vanslyutman-Corbin, Secretary Pollard and Board Member, Howard no longer hold their positions or perform duties within the credit union until the hearing and determination of the matter in September.

He had also ordered that former Chairman of the Credit Union, Trevor Benn, Vice Chairman, Patrick Mentore and Treasurer, Rajdai Jaggernauth fill their positions and perform their functions.
Justice Singh made the order after attorneys representing the three respondents, failed to provide a plausible explanation for their absence.

The lawyers explained that their clients were out of the jurisdiction and that they had left the country to attend a conference. However, Justice Singh did not find the excuse good enough.