Nirmal in ‘Massive’ court win

Nirmal “Massive” Gosine, through his attorneys Abdel and Shabanna Mohammed, filed a second lawsuit against the State which has failed to abide by a judge’s order that Gosine be issued a new valid permit and the inaccurate duplicate be taken off the register.

Two years after Justice Charles’ order, the Licensing Division reissued the new corrected permit which Gosine only received on Monday. Yesterday, Justice James Aboud awarded Gosine damages which are to be assessed. Speaking to reporters at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, Gosine spoke out about corruption in the Licensing Division and called on Works and Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to begin a through weeding out of the bad elements in the division.

He also said he forgave those who had the worst to say about him when he was first arrested, adding that it was not something he would wish on his worst enemy as the situation severely crippled his activities, including his hosting of his chutney tent over the last decade.

Gosine had, in 2010, commenced proceedings against the State for malicious prosecution which arose as a result of an erroneous duplicate entry of his driver’s permit.

In 2014, Justice Joan Charles ordered judgement for Gosine in his malicious prosecution claim and held that his permit (which carried the number 739085F) was valid and lawfully registered but was erroneously registered (as 769925F).

The judge ordered compensation, interest and costs totalling $765,000 and ordered the Commissioner of Transport and the Licensing Authority to return a corrected version of Gosine’s driver’s permit to him within one week of the order at no cost to him. Gosine’s new claim arose from the State’s failure to reissue a corrected permit.

He said he wrote numerous letters and made oral requests to have the situation resolved but no response had been forthcoming.

He sought damages in the sum of $100,650 and continuing at the rate of $150 a day until his driver’s permit was given back to him. The new award of damages is for the period July, 2015, to yesterday’s date.