The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday ruled that the Guyana Court of Appeal does have jurisdiction to hear an appeal filed by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has been trying to challenge a $20m default judgment imposed against him for not filing a defence in time to a defamation suit brought by former government Minister Annette Ferguson.
For the past two years, Jagdeo has been challenging that ruling of High Court Judge Sandra Kurtzious at every level of the local appellate system and in September of last year, he approached Guyana’s final appellate court—the CCJ.
Before the Trinidad-based court of last resort, he maintained the argument he did before the courts below, that the trial judge erred in entering a default judgment against him without considering all the grounds of his draft defence.