Judge strikes out case against Panday

A CASE brought against Leader of the Opposition Basdeo Panday was dismissed yesterday by a High Court judge on the ground that it was an abuse of process because it was statute-barred. Justice Peter Jamadar, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Chamber Court, struck out the case brought by former client Arthur London against Panday when he (Panday) was in private practice. London filed a writ in the Port-of-Spain High Court Registry on May 13 2002 in which he was seeking among other things, general damages and $1,500 which he claimed he paid to Panday as a retainer to represent him. London claimed that on August 16 1990, he consulted Panday at the lawyer’s office at 18 Irving Street in San Fernando for professional advice about his rights of action against the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago that had dismissed him on May 2, 1990.

London claimed that as a result of the legal advice, he retained and employed Panday as his attorney and entrusted him with the task of commencing proceedings to recover damages against the Petroleum Company in respect to his dismissal. In his statement of claim, London alleged that Panday failed to take action until his claim for damages was statute-barred by virtue of Section 5 of the Limitation of Personal Actions Ordinance. He contended that Panday failed to issue a writ against the Petroleum Company within four years from the date he was dismissed. He said as a result, he lost all prospect of recovering damages from the Petroleum Company in respect of his dismissal. London took Panday before the Disciplinary Committee of the Law Association but those charges were dismissed.

It was then that he filed a writ against Panday seeking general damages, special damages, and costs. Although his writ was filed on May 13, 2002, London did not serve the writ within one year of the filing. He obtained an order from Justice Nolan Bereaux on October 30, 2003 extending the validity of the writ for a further six months. London eventually served his writ on Panday in the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, when judgment was delivered in the libel case brought by former CCN chairman Ken Gordon against Panday, a former Prime Minister. Panday’s attorney Narendra Lalbeharry filed an application to dismiss London’s claim on the ground that it was an abuse of process because it was statute- barred. The case was struck out yesterday by Justice Jamadar after hearing submissions from Lalbeharry. London was represented by Owen Hinds Jr.