May 17th has been set for hearing of the application filed by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo who is seeking to set aside a $20M default judgment he has been ordered to pay former government minister Annette Ferguson who had brought a libel action against him.
The matter is scheduled to be called at 11:45am before Justice Sandra Kurtzious.
The parties have been ordered to serve written submissions on each other ahead of the hearing.
Back in March, Justice Kurtzious granted Ferguson a judgment ‘in default of defence’ after Jagdeo failed to file his defence within the 28-day time period specified in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules.
Two days after being served with the order, Jagdeo filed an urgent application seeking to set aside the default judgment and an order dismissing Ferguson’s “Statement of Claim for delay.”
His former lawyer—now Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC, had issued a statement saying on the one hand that he was unaware of the default judgment, but on the other, attributing his failure to submit his client’s defence on time, to his preparations for the March 2nd, 2020 General Elections and limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ferguson in an affidavit in response has, however, slammed Jagdeo’s explanation of his lawyer being preoccupied with general elections and the constraints brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, as mere excuses for not complying with the timeline in which he needed to file his defence to her action.
In January of last year, she filed a $60M lawsuit against Jagdeo—the then Opposition Leader and the Guyana Times newspaper, over what she said were libelous statements made by the two, calculated to damage her character and reputation.
In her suit against Jagdeo, Ferguson was seeking damages in excess of $50,000,000 for libel she said he committed on two separate occasions—December 5th and 12th of 2019 for which she was asking for more than $25M in damages for each occasion.
In her separate action against the Guyana Times, the former Minister is seeking damages in excess of $10M against the news entity which she said had published the alleged libelous statements made against her by Jagdeo.
Ferguson had alleged that Jagdeo had made what she said were untrue statements regarding her acquisition of land.
