Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, has filed an appeal to the ruling handed down by Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, ordering that he be jailed for 21 days if he fails to pay over to Trinidad construction company Dipcon, the more than US$2 million owed by government for road construction works.
On Monday, the judge ruled that the payment is to be made no later than July 8th, failing which Jordan is to be imprisoned.
In his grounds of appeal, Attorney General Basil Williams who is representing Jordan argues that the judge erred and misdirected herself in law by exercising jurisdiction to hear the application brought by Dipcon for contempt against Jordan in his private and personal capacity for monies “alleged to be owed by the state.”
According to the notice of appeal, the judge “improperly” heard the matter in the absence of any action, cause, judgment, order or proceedings having been made or issued in the personal name of Winston Jordan.
Counsel for the appellant is of the view that Justice Sewnarine-Beharry failed to appreciate that contempt proceedings were coercive in nature and could not be made against an officer of state, and in particular against Jordan privately, since no act was done by him in his private capacity for contempt to prevail against him.
The attorney general is contending, too, that the judge erred by omitting to set aside the entire proceedings as void from the inception, arguing that the application was “bad in law, misconceived and in clear breach” of the provisions of the State Liability Proceedings Act, which bars the applicant from obtaining any coercive order against the Minister of Finance in his private or official capacity, compelling or coercing him to
pay a judgment in civil proceedings against the state.
Regarding his request which was denied, for Justice Sewnarine-Beharry to stay her ruling pending the outcome of this appeal, Williams said that the judge again committed an error, arguing that her refusal to stay the order for contempt, amounted to prohibiting the state from pursuing an appeal.
He expressed the view also, that the judge misdirected herself on the evidence.
Having regard to the grounds set out in his notice of appeal, Jordan is hoping to have Justice Sewnarine-Beharry’s judgment set aside, reversed and/or varied. He also wants Dipcon to be ordered to pay court costs.
Before handing down her ruling, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry had noted that she considered the 2015 judgment of Justice Rishi Persaud, who after a trial awarded US$2,228,400 to Dipcon, and also an order of mandamus subsequently issued by the Chief Justice that the sum be paid.
Following the non-payment of the sum—though both the Court of Appeal and Caribbean Court of Justice had affirmed Justice Persaud’s ruling, Dipcon filed the contempt proceedings against Jordan.
Finding that Jordan had both the actus reus and mens rea for contempt of the court orders, which she said could be proven beyond reasonable doubt, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry ordered that he be imprisoned for 21 days if he fails to have the money paid over by July 8th.
Challenging the arguments advanced by Williams, Dipcon’s attorney, Timothy Jonas, has said that while a court indeed has no jurisdiction to issue coercive orders against the government, Jordan was not the government, but a mere “individual,” against whom the contempt proceedings were mounted.
It is Jordan who is in “criminal contempt,” for not giving effect to Justice Persaud’s October 21st, 2015 judgment, Jonas had previously argued.
