Former Deputy Chief Election Officer, Roxanne Myers has filed a $70,000,000 lawsuit against Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party, Lenox Shuman, and the Guyana Times for what she said were libelous statements made against her more than a year ago, impugning her character when she served the Commission.
Myers is alleging that in January of last year, Shuman and his Party made libelous averments against her regarding a replacement Councillor to represent his party on the Regional Democratic Council of Region 8. She is claiming damages in excess of $15,000,000.
She is also seeking $20,000,000 in damages against Shuman and his Party for what she describes as the January 22nd, 2021 offending article which to date is still on the news entity’s website.
She identified the offending news article as “Jimmy James no longer willing to serve in capacity as LJP representative” and is also suing the news agency itself for more than $35,000,000 in damages for having published the article which appeared both in its print and online editions.
She is also seeking exemplary and aggravated damages, court costs, and interest on the sums being sought, in accordance with the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.
In her suit filed last Wednesday, Myers (the Claimant) is asking the court to grant interim and then permanent injunctions restraining the defendants and their agents from publishing or causing to be published by any means whatsoever the words complained of in the article in question.
Myers also wants the Court to order the Defendants to apologize to her and retract the statements via the news agency’s website; and for a mandatory injunction compelling the Times to permanently remove the article from its website.
Through her attorney Eusi Anderson, the Claimant has said that the statements were defamatory against her; false, malicious and calculated to impugn her character and she wants a mandatory injunction compelling the Guyana Times to permanently remove the article from its website.
Outlining the grounds of her claim, Myers said that following the General and Regional Elections of March 2nd, 2020, Shuman and his Party levelled against her, certain claims which were slanderous and defamatory, false, malicious and calculated to impugn her character.
She is contending that the Defendants published her name as one who acted beyond the scope of her powers when she served as Deputy Chief Election Officer as it pertains to the March 2nd, 2020 general and regional elections.
Regarding the statements complained of in the article, Myers said that the willful malice of the allegations levelled against her by the Defendants is to be found in their failure to contact her before publication to give her an opportunity to exonerate herself.
Myers said that the article has caused her substantial hurt and diminished her image; and was meant to convey among other things that she was dishonest and unscrupulous; political in the discharge of her functions and engaged in “unethical, immoral, and illegal” behaviour.
Myers said that because of the publication, her reputation has been “seriously injured” and so has her credit, and that she has been subjected to ridicule; even as her reputation has been lowered in the estimation of right-thinking persons.
She contends that unless restrained, the Defendants will further publish or cause to be published the statements complained of against her.
Since the 2020 polls, Myers has a number of other pending lawsuits before the courts against the Guyana Times, the Kaieteur News, and other persons in which she is seeking several hundred millions dollars in damages.
