Fired CEO’s case against ADB begins

Preliminary arguments started yesterday in a judicial review proceeding brought by fired CEO of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB)  Seebalack Singh against a decision of the bank’s Board to fire him on the grounds of insubordination. The board had instructed Singh to invest $4.5M in a Clico Life Insurance Fund but he refused on the ground that to do so was illegal and ultra vires the statute. This instruction was also strongly resisted by the bank’s cooperative manager of finance Feona Lue-Ping-Wa. She too, was also fired. When the matter was called yesterday before Justice Amrika Tiwary-Reddy, in the Port-of-Spain Third Civil Court, the bank’s attorneys Elton Prescott and Phillip Lamont, sought leave of the Court to have certain paragraphs of the affidavits of Singh and Lue-Ping-Wa struck out. The notice to “strike out” was filed on Wednesday in San Fernando but the Court did get a copy, while Singh’s attorneys Dr Fenton Ramsahoye SC and Anand Ramlogan only got a faxed copy.

Ramsahoye complained about the late filing of the notice and asked the Court not to entertain the application. He suggested that the issues raised in the application could be dealt with during the  substantive arguments of the trial. During his submission, Prescott interrupted to point out that in judicial review proceedings the court could only inquire into the procedure of the action taken and not into the merits of the action. Ramsahoye was quick to point out that the amendment to the Act in 2000 gave it wider powers, and insisted that the Court inquire into whether the matter that gave rise to the decision of the board was outside of the statutory powers.   

Ramsahoye boasted that the amended act was an “enlightened piece of legislation.” He contended that  it allows the court to be concerned if a right has been violated. Ramsahoye also suggested that Lue-Ping-Wa was also fired for the same reason; Prescott interjected that she was fired because of fraud but later corrected that by saying because of fraud in her department.” She has also taken legal action against the bank. Justice Tiwary-Reddy overruled Ramsahoye’s objection, stating that she would hear Prescott’s application and then decide the next course of action. Hearing continues today.