The Attorney General’s Office has to fork out $240 000 to two claimants who complained that their constitutional rights were breached by a judge who took an inordinate length of time to deal with their cases.
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Last week, Justice Patrick Wells awarded Kymmia Mottley and Onekia Nedd-Hackett damages in the amount of $140 000 and $100 000, respectively, for the breach.
In the two separate cases, the women sought redress for contravention of fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under Sections 11, 18, and 24 of The Constitution.
Attorneys Gregory Nicholls, Lani Daisley and Olius David appeared for Mottley, while attorney Jared Richards appeared for the Attorney General.
Nedd-Hackett was represented by Larry Smith KC and attorney Brent Chandler, while Deputy Solicitor
General Marsha Lougheed appeared for the Attorney General.
In Mottley’s case, the evidence revealed that she sustained a fractured left femur in March 2008, when she was six years old, while walking at the River Road van stand with her mother. The cause of the injury was the uneven gravel on the surface of the van stand, which caused Mottley to lose her footing, slip and fall.
In 2013, she sued the Attorney General, the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation (BIDC) and Capital Signal.
In 2014, the Attorney General filed an interlocutory application to be struck from the claim. That application was heard on November, 13, 2017 and Justice Randall Worrell (now retired) reserved his decision. Up to April 30, 2024, three days before filing the case at bar, about seven and a half years later, a decision had not been rendered despite attorneys writing several times to the Registrar as well as the Chief Justice.
Justice Wells stated: “The court has absolutely no difficulty in finding and declaring that the inordinate delay of the Honourable Judge in delivering a decision on the interlocutory application he adjudicated was a breach of the applicant’s/claimant’s constitutional rights to the protection of the law and to a fair hearing within a reasonable time.
“When one considers that members of society come to the court for a timely resolution of their disputes, it seems to me that there must be some compulsion on the part of judicial officers to do the best they can to ensure that that occurs. A vital part of that timeliness is the giving of decisions, whether on interlocutory applications or in final judgment, such that the parties can be clear as to the resolution that the court has determined in the dispute that they have brought to the court for a resolution.
“When the court fails the citizen in a very extreme way, as occurred here, there has to be accountability in a sufficiently meaningful way.”
He added: “As judicial officers . . . it makes it more compelling for us to act in ways that are consistent with the upholding of constitutional values such as those informing the application herein.”
Justice Wells stated: “From the facts presented to the court, there is
no other conclusion that the court could possibly come to, than that the failure of the Honourable Judge to render a timely decision, led to a deprivation of Ms Mottley’s constitutional rights as claimed.”
Likewise in relation to Nedd-Hackett who brought an action in 2013 against Anderson Doughlin for a breach of contract as a result of his sale to her of an alleged faulty motor car, she was awarded a default judgement in 2014 after Doughlin failed to respond, following which Doughlin filed a notice of application to set aside the default judgement.
Submissions were heard in 2015 and Justice Worrell reserved his decision. Up to the point when the claimant filed this action in April 2022 seeking constitutional redress, the judgement had been outstanding for a period of nearly seven years despite attorneys writing several times to the Registrar to enquire about the status of the matter.
Last week, Justice Wells also awarded $280 000 to Micah Laron Chase who filed for breach of his constitutional rights after having a murder case hanging over his head for ten years. (MB)